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Kitru's New Class Idea


Kitru

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For the last few months, I've been working on a class idea. Rather than doing the normal "half baked" attempts at building a class, I just went whole hog and put together an entire class from the ground up, complete with both ACs, companions, story, abilities (with numbers) and spec for both the Republic and Imperial versions.

 

Before you criticize this as simply "not gonna happen", I should mention that I've actually thought about how this would be implemented. Since it involves a *lot* of voice work as well as new animations, locations, and scripting, it's probably not going to be free. My basic thought is that this class should be released as part of a paid expansion with this mirror class as well as another that I'm working on (and maybe another battleground). I would make it cost $5-10 (so about half as much as RotHC). As a paid expanion (and a low cost one at that), the development costs would be offset relatively quickly (and probably generate a profit since you could probably expect most subscribers to pitch in an extra $5-10 to get access to a couple of new classes with new stories) and the presence of some new classes would definitely bring in new players to the game, so it could be something of a double win.

 

The classes themselves are based off of the Echani, though I view them more as a culture than as a species (similar to Mandalorians). Since there isn't exactly much lore that I could find concerning the Echani and Thyrsians during the Old Republic time frame, I decided to write some of my own while fitting within what I *could* find.

 

First off, I had the Bengali Uprising (wherein Thyrsus rebelled against the Echani proper) take place only 20 years ago (I couldn't find a timeline for it, so I came up with it myself). I chose 20 years because it's recent enough for it to be "recent" but not so recent as to be simply simmering: as such, the Bengali Uprising is *over* and Thyrsus is free and independent. It also means that, right now, the Thyrsians and Echani are still fundamentally similar cultures: one may be patriarchal and worship the sun and the other matriarchal and worship the moon, but their fighting styles and basic psychology are still fundamentally similar which explains why, even though they separate later on in the timeline, right now, they're still using similar techniques and equipment.

 

Secondly, the Bengali Uprising caused *massive* amounts of damage to the Eshan, the home planet of the Echani, such that it's barely liveable any more, as well as massive damage to both sides' populations. My reasoning behind this is multifold: it explains how the Thyrsians, who only have a single planet, managed to achieve military parity with the combined might of the other 5 planets of the Echani Confederacy, namely by being willing to cross the line in order to achieve their goal of independence. It also gives a *really* good reason for the Echani and Thyrsians to hate each other with a livid passion even though they're, nominally, the same culture with minute differences. It also explains why both cultures would be more willing to bring in other races to be raised amongst them (the ability to predict incoming attacks is more predicated upon growing up in a culture where combat is communication rather than an inherent racial ability): losing almost an entire generation of their people meant that they were more willing to bring in outsiders to be taught the Echani fighting style so that it wouldn't be lost.

 

Third, there isn't much explicitly written about the Echani fighting style. It's only described in generalities so I assigned some specifics. The "pure" version of Echani used by the Republic class is based upon elemental mimicry, based upon the 5 classical elements (Fire, Air, Water, Earth, and Spirit). The Thyrsian version is mechanically identical but based upon 5 "pillars of victory" (Aggression, Mobility, Adaptability, Resilience, and Observation). In addition, rather than being a purely unarmed discipline (which Echani is generally described as), it's a mixed bag where fighters choose one or the other depending on personal preference (considering there's an Echani Ritual Brand, I would think that armed combat isn't just a side note).

 

(btw, rather than putting all damage numbers into their base coefficients, I instead used the damage dealt by the basic attack as the standard; essentially, all damage numbers represent how many multiples of the basic attack they deal; it's similar enough to the coefficients for the soft number balancing that I've done and gives you a decent guideline for how much damage the attacks should do for certain gear set ups)

 

So, here goes...

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Echani Fighter / Thyrsian Aspirant (Base Class)

Weapons: Fist Weapon

Armor: Medium

Primary Attribute: Strength

Class Buff: 5% surge rating

Power Source: Tech

Resource: The Echani Fighter uses 2 separate resources; Breath, which is mechanically identical to Force for a Shadow (capped at 100; regen static at 5/sec), and Intuition, which is mechanically identical to Focus (capped at 12; starts at 0, degrades when out of combat, gained with specific attacks that consume Breath)

 

Class Abilities

 

Quick Combination: 1.0 standards weapon damage (3 x .33 hits), melee attack, basic attack

 

Power Strike: 1.2 standards weapon damage, melee attack, 25 Breath, generates 2 Intuition

 

Intuitive Strike: 1.2 standards weapon damage, melee attack, 2 Intuition

 

Felling Blow: (Execute), melee attack, 25 Breath, generates 2 Intuition

 

True Strike: 1.7 standards kinetic, Tech attack, 4 Intuition, 3 second cast, 9 sec CD, sub-strong stun

 

Warcry: .82 standards internal, Tech attack, 5m PbAoE, 30 Breath, 12 sec CD, sub-strong stun, generates 1 Intuition

 

Whirlwind Combination: 2.0 standards weapon (4 x .5 weapon), melee attack, 5m PbAoE, 4 Intuition, 3 second channel (immune to pushback), no CD

 

Arcing Strike: .7 standards weapon, melee attack, 4m PbAoE (150* arc), 30 Breath, generates 1 Intuition

 

Flying Kick: 1.0 standards kinetic, Tech attack, 25 Breath, 15 sec CD, generates 4 Intuition, Interrupt, 3 sec Immob, move to target

 

Throat Strike: Interrupt, 8 sec CD

 

Extricate: CC cleanse, 2 minute CD

 

Intense Scrutiny: 20 sec duration, 1 minute CD, Your next 3 attacks have a 20% higher critical hit chance and generate 1 point of Intuition.

 

Shy Away: (Threat Drop), 45 sec CD, off GCD

 

Amplify Generator: Amplifies the effects of your offhand item depending on what type it is. Lasts 15 seconds. 2 minute CD.

Shield Generator: Increases Shield chance by 25% and Shield Absorption by 25%.

Generator: Increases Critical hit chance by 15% and Critical hit damage by 25%.

 

Second Wind: 120 sec CD. Restores 50 Breath.

 

 

Echani Infighter / Thyrsian Brawler (Advanced Class)

Weapons: Fist Weapons and Shield/Generator

Roles: Tank (Earth spec), DPS (Water spec), DPS (Spirit spec)

 

Infighter/Brawler Abilities (these are not absolutely complete, nor are they in order; I only included the "important" ones that define the build):

 

Rising Fist: 1.35 standards kinetic damage, Tech attack, 2 Intuition

 

Temple Strike: (stun)

 

Avalanche Strike: 1.7 standards kinetic damage, Tech attack, 30 Breath, 30 sec CD, 15m range, 5m radius smart AoE, teleports, sub-strong knockdown, generates 1 Intuition

 

Stoic Mountain Stance: Increases armor by 90%, decreases all damage taken by 5% and increases shield chance by 15%. While Mountain Technique is active, threat generated is increased by 100% and armor penetration is increased by 15%.

 

Crashing Wave Stance: Enters the Crashing Wave stance, giving your attacks a 25% chance on hit to deal .2 standards internal damage and slow the target by 30% for 4.5 seconds. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.

 

Challenge: (ST taunt)

 

Challenging Cry: (AoE taunt)

 

Aegis Guard: Increases damage reduction by 25% for 12 seconds. 3 minute CD.

 

Takedown: 1.0 standards kinetic, Tech attack, 1.5 sec knockdown, 45 sec CD

 

 

Infighter/Brawler Skills/Talents:

 

Earth:

Fracture(Tier 8): 1.12 standards kinetic damage, Tech attack, 25 Breath, 35% armor penetration, generates 2 Intuition, applies the Fractured debuff that increases the damage the target takes from your Avalanche Strike by 10%, stacks up to 3 times, lasts 30 seconds

Prescient Defense (Tier 3): 12 sec CD, off GCD, provides 8% Defense for 15 seconds, 2 Intuition, requires a Shield

Aggressive Defense (2 point, requires Prescient Defense): Prescient Defense also provides you with 8 charges of Aggressive Defense. Whenever you take damage, the attacker takes .8/.17 energy damage and Aggressive Defense loses 1 charge. (no ICD)

Reverberation (2 point): Power Strike and Fracture have a 50/100% chance to reduce the cost of True Strike by 1 Intuition, stacks up to 2 times

Echani Shield Technique (2 point): Whenever you shield/parry/deflect an attack, you have a 50/100% chance to cause your next True Strike to be instant cast. In addition, whenever you use True Strike you have a 50/100% chance to grant Shield Barrier, which absorbs a moderate amount of damage. Lasts 10 seconds.

Rising Mountain (2 point): Rising Fist has a 50/100% chance to reduce the cooldown on Avalanche Strike by 3 seconds

Intimidation (2 point): Echani Warcry reduces the damage of all targets hit by it by 2.5/5% for 15 seconds

Rolling Stone... (2 point): reduces the cost of Avalanche Strike by 15/30 Breath

...Gathers Moss: (2 point): Avalanche Strike has a 50/100% chance to provide an additional 1 Intuition for each target hit

Distracting Blows (3 point): Whirlwind Combination, Power Strike, and Fracture have a 33/66/100% chance to reduce the accuracy of affected targets by 5%

Rise Higher (2 point): Increases the damage dealt by Rising Fist by 5/10%

Shield Optimization (3 point): Increases Shield chance by 3/6/9%

Hardened Skin (3 point): 1/2/3% Increased damage reduction

(need name) (3 point): Increases Strength by 3/6/9%

Improved Aegis (2 point): Reduces the cooldown on Aegis Guard by 30/60 seconds.

 

Water:

Vortex Spin (Tier 8): 1.7 standards energy damage, Tech attack, 3 Intuition, 30 sec CD, 10m radius smart AoE, pulls all enemies, slows by 50% for 5 seconds

Ebb and Flow (Tier 3): While you are in Crashing Wave stance, Breath consuming attacks provide a stacking +15% bonus to the damage of your next Intuition consuming attack, and Intuition consuming attacks provide a stacking +15% bonus to the damage of your next Breath consuming attack. Stacks up to 5 times. You cannot gain Ebb stacks for 6 seconds after using an Intuition consuming attack and cannot gain Flow stacks for 6 seconds after using an Breath consuming attack.

(need name) (3 point): Increase the damage of True Strike by 10/20/30%.

Rising Tide (2 point): Rising Fist and Power Strike have a 50/100% chance to reduce the cooldown on Avalanche Strike and Vortex Spin by 1 second.

(unnamed) (2 point): While in Crashing Wave stance, whenever you hit a target, you have a 7.5/15% chance to make your next True Strike cost 100% less Intuition and be uninterruptible and immune to pushback.

Tsunami (3 point): Increases the damage dealt by Avalanche Strike and Vortex Spin by 10/20/30%

(unnamed) (3 point): Increases the critical strike damage dealt by Power Strike and Rising Fist by 10/20/30%

(unnamed) (3 point): When your Crashing Wave stance deals damage, you have a 10/20/30% chance to gain a stack of Ebb or Flow

(unnamed) (2 point): Increases the damage dealt by Power Strike and Arcing Strike by 5/10%

Fluid Breath (2 point): Whenever you consume 5 stacks of Ebb or Flow at one time, you gain 7/15 Breath

Improved Crashing Wave (3 point): Increases the chance your Crashing Wave Stance applies its effect by 3/6/9%

(unnamed) (3 point): Reduces the Breath cost of Avalanche Strike by 2/4/6 and Power Strike by 1/2/3.

(unnamed) (2 point): When your Crashing Wave stance deals damage, the cooldown on Aegis is reduced by 1.5 seconds. This cannot occur more than once every 3 seconds.

 

Spirit:

(unnamed) (Tier 3): True Strike no longer has a cooldown and is immune to pushback.

Celestial Watcher Stance (Tier 3): Enters the Celestial Watcher stance. All attacks that generate cost Intuition will refund 1 Intuition when used.

Lunar Reverie (Tier 8, requires Follow Through): 1.3 standards kinetic damage, Tech attack, 25 Breath, generates 2 Intuition, consumes all Follow Through stacks to provide 1 additional Intuition for each, 12 sec CD.

Follow Through (Tier 5, 2 points): True Strike has a 50/100% chance to grant Follow Through, increasing the cost of True Strike by 1 and increasing the damage of True Strike and Lunar Reverie by 33%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 15 seconds but is removed by using any attack other than True Strike.

Stance Mastery (3 point):Improves the effects of your stance while they are active.

Mountain: Whenever you successfully shield, parry, or deflect an attack, you gain 1 Intuition. This effect cannot occur more than once every 7.5 seconds. Each rank beyond the first reduces this rate by 1.5 seconds. In addition, you gain 2/4/6% DR to internal and elemental damage.

Crashing Wave: You deal 2/4/6% additional damage to targets that are slowed or under the effects of your Crashing Wave

Celestial Watcher: While in Celestial Watcher stance, you gain 1 Intuition every 12 seconds. Each additional point after the first reduces this by 3 seconds.

Intuitive Strikes (2 point): Fracture, Power Strike, and Arcing Strike have a 50/100% chance to provide 1 additional Intuition

Keen Senses (2 point): Increases stealth detection by 1/2 levels and defense by 1/2%

Accupressure (3 point): Increases crit chance by 1/2/3%

Improved True Strike (2 point): Decrease the activation time of True Strike by .5/1.0 seconds.

(unnamed) (2 point): Increases the critical hit chance of True Strike by 7.5/15%

(unnamed) (2 point): You have a 50/100% chance of gaining 1 Intuition whenever you score a critical hit with True Strike

(unnamed) (2 point): Reduces the Intuition cost of True Strike by 1/2 Intuition

(unnamed) (2 point): Using True Strike increases the critical hit chance of Power Strike by 25/50% for 6 seconds.

(unnamed) (2 point): Reduces the minimum range on Flying Kick by 5/10m.

(unnamed) (3 point): Increases accuracy by 1/2/3%

 

 

Discussing the basic idea/playstyle of the specs, I aimed for stuff that hadn't been done with other classes while capitalizing on the dual resource aspect of the class. Earth is a tank spec that exists somewhere between Guardians and Shadows on the continuum of active v. passive mitigation, with some limited retributive damage and decent AoE but bursty. Water is a spec that alternates between blowing through all of their Breath and then through their Intuition with a lot of secondary controlling effects. Spirit was, for those who played WoW, imagined as a melee version of the Arcane Mage: chain casting an ability that gets progressively more expensive and damage with each continuous cast. You then build your resources back up to prepare to unleash the fury once again.

 

Echani Fencer / Thyrsian Gladiator (Advanced class)

Weapons: Double Bladed Vibroblade and Generator

Roles: DPS (Fire), DPS (Air), DPS (Spirit)

 

Fencer/Gladiator Abilities:

 

Advantageous Strike: 1.55 standards weapon damage (2 * .775 hits), melee attack, 2 Intuition, requires back of target

 

Disengaging Cut: 1.2 standards weapon damage, 2 Intuition, 15 sec CD, pushes you back 20 yards

 

Firedancer Stance: Enters the Firedancer stance, giving your attacks an 20% chance on hit to light the target on fire for .175 standards elemental damage over 4.5 seconds.

 

Windwalker Stance: Enters the Windwalker stance, giving your attacks a 25% chance on hit to deal .22 standards energy damage. This effect cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds. In addition, your movement speed is increased by 20%.

 

Confounding Defense: 60 sec CD. Increases Defense by 100% for 3 seconds.

 

Hobble: .9 standards weapon damage, melee attack, 20 Breath, 12 sec CD, generates 1 Intuition, reduces movement speed of target by 50% for 6 seconds

 

 

Fencer/Gladiator Skills/Talents(these are not absolutely complete, nor are they in order; I only included the "important" ones that define the build):

 

Spirit:

(unnamed) (Tier 3): True Strike no longer has a cooldown and is immune to pushback.

Celestial Watcher Stance (Tier 3): Enters the Celestial Watcher stance. All attacks that generate cost Intuition will refund 1 Intuition when used.

Lunar Reverie (Tier 8, requires Follow Through): 1.3 standards kinetic damage, Tech attack, 25 Breath, generates 2 Intuition, consumes all Follow Through stacks to provide 1 additional Intuition for each, 12 sec CD.

Follow Through (Tier 5, 2 points): True Strike has a 50/100% chance to grant Follow Through, increasing the cost of True Strike by 1 and increasing the damage of True Strike and Lunar Reverie by 33%. Stacks up to 3 times. Lasts 15 seconds but is removed by using any attack other than True Strike.

Stance Mastery (3 point):Improves the effects of your stance while they are active.

Mountain: Whenever you successfully shield, parry, or deflect an attack, you gain 1 Intuition. This effect cannot occur more than once every 7.5 seconds. Each rank beyond the first reduces this rate by 1.5 seconds. In addition, you gain 2/4/6% DR to internal and elemental damage.

Crashing Wave: You deal 2/4/6% additional damage to targets that are slowed or under the effects of your Crashing Wave

Celestial Watcher: While in Celestial Watcher stance, you gain 1 Intuition every 12 seconds. Each additional point after the first reduces this by 3 seconds.

Intuitive Strikes (2 point): Fracture, Power Strike, and Arcing Strike have a 50/100% chance to provide 1 additional Intuition

Keen Senses (2 point): Increases stealth detection by 1/2 levels and defense by 1/2%

Accupressure (3 point): Increases crit chance by 1/2/3%

Improved True Strike (2 point): Decrease the activation time of True Strike by .5/1.0 seconds.

(unnamed) (2 point): Increases the critical hit chance of True Strike by 7.5/15%

(unnamed) (2 point): You have a 50/100% chance of gaining 1 Intuition whenever you score a critical hit with True Strike

(unnamed) (2 point): Reduces the Intuition cost of True Strike by 1/2 Intuition

(unnamed) (2 point): Using True Strike increases the critical hit chance of Power Strike by 25/50% for 6 seconds.

(unnamed) (2 point): Reduces the minimum range on Flying Kick by 5/10m.

(unnamed) (3 point): Increases accuracy by 1/2/3%

 

Air:

(unnamed) (3 points): Unseen Strike and Power Strike have a 33/66/100% chance to cause your next Advantageous Strike to automatically score a critical hit.

(unnamed) (3 points): Increases the critical strike bonus damage of Unseen Strike and Advantageous Strike by 10/20/30%.

(unnamed) (2 points): Increases the damage deal by Disengaging Cut and Flying Kick by 15/30%.

Growing Winds (Tier 3): While you are in Windwalker Stance, Disengaging Cut and Flying Kick provide you with Growing Winds, increasing the damage dealt by your next Whirlwind Combination by 30%, stacks up to 2 times.

(unnamed) (3 points): When your Windwalker stance deals damage, you have a 33/66/100% chance to gain Intense Winds, which causes your next Whirlwind Combination to channel and tick 25% faster. Stacks up to 4 times.

(unnamed) (1 point): Reduces the Breath cost of Flying Kick by 5.

(unnamed) (2 points): When your Windwalker stance deals damage, you gain 3/6 Breath.

Unseen Strike (Tier 8): 2.2 standards weapon damage, melee attack, 7.5 sec CD, 40 Breath, requires back of target, automatically scores a critical hit if you are currently in stealth, generates 2 Intuition.

Stealth (Tier 5): (Stealth clone). Can only be used while in Windwalker Stance.

(unnamed) (3 points): Increases your effective stealth level by 1/2/3 and movement speed while in Windwalker Stance by 5/10/15%.

(unnamed) (2 points): While in Windwalker Stance, your melee damage is increased by 3/6%.

Wind Shear (2 points): Dealing a critical hit has a 50/100% chance to grant Wind Shear, increasing your Defenses by 2% for 15 seconds. Stacks up to 3 times.

Tailwind (2 points): Whenever you use Disengaging Cut, you have a 50/100% chance to gain Tailwind for 6 seconds, which increases your Defenses by 15% and your movement speed by 50%.

(unnamed) (2 points): Critical hits reduce the cooldown on Second Wind by 1.5 seconds. Cannot occur more than once every 1.5 seconds.

 

Fire:

Improved Firedancing (3 points): Increases the your chance to trigger Firedancer Stance by 5/10/15%.

Battlecry (2 points): Using Warcry increases your melee and Tech bonus damage by 5/10% for 18 seconds.

(unnamed) (3 points): While Firedancer Stance is active, your burn effects have a 33/66/100% chance to cause your next True Strike to activate instantly and cost 100% less Intuition. This cannot occur more than once every 10 seconds.

(unnamed) (2 points): Your Advantageous Strike has a 50/100% chance to cause the target to burn for .14 standards elemental damage over 6 seconds.

(unnamed) (3 points): Increases all elemental damage dealt by 2/4/6%.

(unnamed) (Tier 5): Whenever your Firedancer stance activates, you have a 50% chance to gain 50% armor penetration for 3 seconds.

(unnamed) (2 points): Your True Strike has a 50/100% chance to cause the target to burn for .21 standards elemental damage over 6 seconds.

(unnamed) (1 point): Disengaging Strike and Flying Kick ignore 100% of the target's armor.

(unnamed) (3 points): Increases Strength by 3/6/9%.

(unnamed) (2 points): Your burn effects cause you to regain 1/2 Breath whenever they deal damage.

(unnamed) (1 point): Advantageous Strike is usable while face-to-face with against burning targets.

Anneal (Tier 3): 1.8 standards elemental damage, Tech attack, 3 Intuition, 15 sec CD, reduces the target's armor by 20% for 45 seconds

Extirpate (Tier 8): 1.8 standards kinetic damage, Tech attack, 30 Breath, 15 sec CD, consumes any of your burn effects on the target to deal an extra .49 standards elemental damage for each effect removed in this way

Burn Scars (2 point): Increases damage reduction by 2/4%

 

 

For the Fencer/Gladiator, Spirit is functionally identical (which makes sense seeing as it's the shared tree). For Fire, I created a DoT spec with twist insofar as the DoTs themselves exist more as as bonus damage (unlike most DoT specs where the damage dealt by the DoTs is the primary goal) and as a resource consumed by the tier 8 abilty to cause it to deal a crapton more damage (since Extirpate removes any of your DoTs on the target in order to deal a crapton more damage for each present; the damage is actually more than the DoT would have dealt over its entire lifetime). Air was designed as a ridiculously mobile playstyle, emphasizing bouncing in and out of melee while still maintaining a cohesive melee role (the primary "combo" is Disengage>Flying Kick>Whirlwind Combination which has you bounce out, rush back, and, and then spin in a circle to do a crapton of damage).

 

Echani Companions:

 

Naya Krin, gained on New Eshan (starting planet)

Healing companion; uses Strength; channeled stun includes a charge to the target and is melee; her DoT is melee as well; Fist weapon and Vibroknife; medium armor

 

Romanceable

 

Likes: respecting elders, nonlethal competition, honor

Dislikes: cheating, taking stupid risks, dishonor

 

Appearance: Pale skin, short-cropped silver hair, silver eyes; (standard Echani); Body Type 2

 

Personality: Naya is your basic "best friend since forever". While your character was being the best fighter around, she was always tending to your wounds when you got scraped up. Less of a mother/big sister, and more of a girl-next-door. When she is defeated and takes the oath to become your (Echani honorbound cutman), she devotes herself to it completely. While she may not like it when you run headfirst into the mouth of hell, she'll follow you there no matter what. She's pretty much your standard Echani: highly competitive warrior chick. If/when you romance her, it's based heavily on dueling with her, since the Echani view regular fighting as something similar to courtship. Expect to have to pin her to the ground before she lets you kiss her.

 

Weapon: OO Republic: O

Military: O Imperial: O

Courting: O/OOO Cultural: OOO

Luxury: X Trophy: O

Tech: O Underworld: X

 

+Biochem, +Bioan

 

 

Zidane Rohana, gained on Nar Shadaa

Ranged Tank companion; uses Willpower; visual effects are all Telekinetics; Electrostaff or DBLS; light armor

 

Romanceable

 

Likes: breaking with tradition, not drawing attention to yourself, protecting innocents

Dislikes: letting your emotions control you, denying your emotions, trust without verification

 

Appearance: middle-aged, scruffy, dark hair going grey; almost like Revan without the mask marks; Body Type 2

 

Personality: Zidane used to be a Jedi and left the order when he no longer felt that he belonged. He feels the Order is more about preserving tradition than doing good. When you meet him, he is disillusioned, sarcastic, and deeply depressed. Over time, in traveling with you, he begins to reassert himself and regains his confidence and purpose in life. While he no longer has the Order, he can still do good and master his abilities. Romancing him is largely about getting him out of his rutt and giving his life purpose.

 

Weapon: O Republic: O

Military: O Imperial: X

Courting: O/OOO Cultural: OO

Luxury: X Trophy: X

Tech: X Underworld: OOO

 

+Synthweaving, +Artifice

 

 

Brathe Organa, gained on Alderaan

Melee DPS companion; uses Strength; Dual wield Vibroblades; medium armor

 

Fling, but no extended romance

 

Likes: Bravado, honor, demonstrating the virtues of noble birth

Dislikes: Cowardice, humility, egalitarianism

 

Appearance: young, dashing, blond hair, blue eyes; "Prince Charming"-style; Body Type 2-3

 

Personality: Brathe is a rich young punk who has skills drawn from a lifetime of his whims being catered to: he's had the best tutors from numerous planets teaching him since he was old enough to tell him parents he liked to fight with swords. While he's nowhere near as good as he thinks he is, he shows potential and devotion. Skill with a blade is probably the only thing he's consistently cared about over his entire life, though he's a bit exasperating since he acts like he's in charge of you, not the other way around. He'll flirt with you and, if you reciprocate, the two of you can have a fling, but he just gets bored (not to mention that he's technically been promised to another Alderaanian noble almost from birth and you're not really the "noble" type).

 

Weapon: OO Republic: OOO

Military: O Imperial: X

Courting: OOO Cultural: OO

Luxury: OO Trophy: O

Tech: O Underworld: X

 

+Diplomacy, +Treasure Hunting

 

 

Gafsun Threefist, gained on Belsavis

Melee Tank companion, uses Strength; Fist weapons, shield generator; heavy armor

 

Not romanceable

 

Likes: Killing the weak, learning new techniques, getting every advantage

Dislikes: Fighting fair, mercy, showing weakness

 

Appearance: Nikto, green skin; Body Type 3

 

Personality: Gafsun Threefist was a popular fighter on the Nar Shaddaa underground fighting circuit before you and Zidane came and changed everything. When you beat him down, the Republic came in and scooped him up for various infractions. His skill with his fists made him too dangerous to put in a normal Republic prison so he got shipped out to Belsavis. On Belsavis he got taken in to the Domination Experiments. His entire life, Gafsun has had nothing to rely on except for himself and it colors his entire outlook. He has a gallows sense of humor, and it would never advantage of even the most momentary weakness. He respects strength and, as he has seen on multiple occasions, the Fighter is the strongest person around.

 

Weapon: OO Republic: X

Military: OO Imperial: X

Courting: X Cultural: X

Luxury: X Trophy: OOO

Tech: X Underworld: OOO

 

+Scavenging, +Underworld Trading

 

 

Kasjen-Jo, gained on Voss

Ranged DPS companion, uses Aim; Blaster Rifle, generator; heavy armor

 

Not romanceable

 

Likes: Adhering to tradition, demonstrating skill, defeating your enemies

Dislikes: disobedience, dependence, mercy

 

Personality: Kasjen-Jo is a Voss commando, trained to be one of the best. Without the incredible technology of the Gormak, Kasjen-Jo has had to rely on his skills to make up the gap, and he has done an *amazing* job thus far. He is a paragon of the Voss, thoroughly indoctrinated in the cultural prejudices and constructs of his people.

 

Weapon: OO Republic: OO

Military: OOO Imperial: OO

Courting: X Cultural: OOO

Luxury: X Trophy: X

Tech: O Underworld: O

 

+Armstech, +Investigation

 

 

Thyrsian Companions:

 

Jaku Makinen, gained on Thyrsius

Melee tank companion; uses Strength, uses Fist Weapon and Shield Generator, medium armor

 

Romanceable

 

Likes: Loyalty, egalitarianism, caution

Dislikes: Disrespect, risky choices, the Echani

 

Appearance: Dark skin, Closely cropped black hair, brown eyes, Body type 3

 

Personality: Jaku is an orphan of honorable heritage. Both of his parents were in the Sun Guard during the Thyrsian Rebellion and died in the conflict when he was just a baby. Raised by his uncle, a game warden and survivalist, in the deep bush of the Thyrsian savannah, Jaku learned to hunt and survive in all kinds of terrain and was thought by many to inevitably follow his uncle's profession. Instead, when he came of age, Jaku joined the Thyrsian army, having silently nursed his hatred of the Echani with the stories told to him by his uncle and other veterans. As soon as possible, he moved to join the Sun Guard, fervently wishing to follow in his parent's footsteps. Jaku is quiet and thoughtful. He carries with him an intimate knowledge of the dangers inherent in most situations and weighs the risks of any action he might take before taking it. A consummate survivalist, he respects nature and dislikes cities. To romance him, you must first earn his respect.

As you progress through his conversation line, you learn that he seeks revenge against the Echani and specifically wishes to find his parents, whose bodies were never found or recovered. The quests involve finding his father's body and getting his revenge upon his killers.

Romancing Jaku involves proving yourself to him. He is initially uncomfortable around women and distrustful of women in authority, but he learns to respect and then, eventually, love your character as a consummate warrior and survivor. Courting him involves more than its fair share of bruises, cuts, and scrapes, as Thyrsian courting rituals are similar to Echani, if only more rough and tumble.

 

Weapon: OO Republic: O

Military: OOO Imperial: O

Courting: X/OOO Cultural: O

Luxury: X Trophy: OOO

Tech: OO Underworld: X

 

+Investigation, +Bioanalysis

 

 

Googruk, gained on Nar Shaddaa

Ranged DPS companion; uses Aim, uses Blaster Rifle and Generator, heavy armor

 

Likes: Getting paid, partying, enjoying life

Dislikes: Getting dirty, working too hard

 

Appearance: Gamorrean, Body type 4

 

Personality: Unlike most Gamorreans, Googruk likes the finer things in life: good food, nice things, and an easy life. Rather than reveling in the savagery his kind is so often enthralled with, Googruk sees it as a means to an end. He fights because it pays well and he's good at it. At the first opportunity, he took up with the Hutts and moved from employer to employer depending on which could pay more and was most willing to keep him in the life to which he'd become accustomed.

 

Weapon: O Republic: X

Military: X Imperial: X

Courting: O Cultural: OOO

Luxury: OOO Trophy: X

Tech: O Underworld: OO

 

+Underworld Trading, +Treasure Hunting

 

 

Erisi Duine, gained at the end of Act 1

Healer companion; uses Cunning, uses Blaster Pistol and Scattergun, medium armor

 

Likes: Opportunism, mercy, escaping without getting caught, sticking up for the little guy

Dislikes: Fighting, angering people, getting caught, bravado

 

Appearance: Fair skin, red hair, freckled, Body type 1

 

Personality: Erisi grew up on the mean streets of the Coruscant underworld, a victim of the gang life as much as a member of it. After a few years getting abused by whoever was in charge, Erisi stowed away on a smuggler's ship and ended up joining the crew as a cabin boy after much pleading. The happiest years of his life were working for that merry band of smugglers though it wasn't to last: after doing a job for a crime lord smuggling spice, the entire crew was killed when the criminal decided that it was easier to kill the smugglers than pay them. The only reason Erisi survived was because he stayed on the ship, and the only reason he escaped was because his captain sent him a dying message to get out of there before the gang could kill all of them. Erisi bounced around alone, over the next few years, eventually losing the ship when some potential passengers decided it wouldn't be that hard to just take the ship from the mousey Erisi. He was stranded in the next starport and proceeded to bounce around doing odd jobs whenever he could, stealing what he could get away with and getting beaten when he couldn't get away, though he always managed to survive.

Erisi is a coward, through and through, preferring to hide behind more dangerous allies and fleeing at the first sign of danger. While he's not courageous, to those that treat him kindly, he is as loyal as possibly can be.

 

Weapon: X Republic: O

Military: X Imperial: O

Courting: O Cultural: OO

Luxury: OOO Trophy: X

Tech: OO Underworld: OOO

 

+Slicing, +Cybertech

 

 

Smith Kilvarri, gained on Taris

Ranged tank companion; uses Aim, uses Assault Cannon and Shield Generator, heavy armor

 

Likes: Destruction, instilling terror, causing pain

Dislikes: Mercy, showing weakness

 

Appearance: Nekghoul in Trooper armor

 

Personality: Before his transformation, Smith Kilvarri was one of the greatest metallurgists and engineers in the galaxy. Reknowned by both the Mandalorians as an armorsmith of unparalleled skill and the Echani as a master weaponsmith, Smith Kilvarri was of a singularly mercenary mindset, though he was getting old. Something changed during his transformation. He retained his keen mind and skills as a master smith, but the change has made him cruel and bloodthirsty, going to so far as to begin dabbling in Sith Alchemy in order to reinforce his already impressive designs. He revels in his new existence, the strength of the Nekghoul replacing the frailty of his age and the terror his visage inspires. All-in-all, he seems entirely *thrilled* to have become a monster that most would despise.

 

Weapon: OOO Republic: X

Military: O Imperial: O

Courting: X Cultural: X

Luxury: X Trophy: OOO

Tech: OOO Underworld: O

 

+Armormech, +Armstech

 

 

Aurora Makenin, gained on Belsavis

Melee DPS companion; uses Strength, uses Double Bladed Vibroblade and Generator, medium armor

 

Romanceable

 

Likes: Tactical and strategic expertise, selflessness, justice

Dislikes: The Republic, hurting children

 

Appearance: Youthful, dark skin, long braided black hair, body type 3

 

Personality: When Aurora joined the rest of the Sun Guard as part of the Thyrsian Rebellion, it wasn't because she hated the Echani. She stilled viewed herself as fundamentally Echani, for she was a teacher of the Echani fighting style and was trained as a Firedancer. She joined because she believed that her newborn son deserved to be treated as an equal by the other Echani rather than looked down on as a Thyrsian. She fought for equality and for a better future for her son. When the Echani ambushed the Sun Guard, she willingly stayed behind to cover the escape of her husband, so that he might survive to raise their son. Her heart sank when, as she and her compatriots were being dragged away in chains, she saw the Thyrsian shuttles explode as the took off. The Echani desired their deaths, but the Republic had other ideas. After a few months in an Echani prison, Aurora and the rest of the Sun Guard prisoners were taken to Belsavis and kept there. The danger she and her compatriots posed as masters of unarmed combat and all variety of combat tactics as well as their intuitive knowledge of all things involving war forced the Republic to put them all into stasis, rather than being left to their own devices in the prison.

When freed, Aurora's first thought is to get revenge upon the Republic for sealing her up within that prison rather than killing her and sparing her the dishonor. Afterwards, she simply seeks to rebuild the honor of the Sun Guard and to get to know her son, who is now the same age as her.

Aurora was the wife of a warrior and got over his death very quickly, especially since he died honorably in combat. To court her, you must both show respect for her as a warrior, a mother, and a widow: she still loves her dead husband and brooks no insult to his memory. While she takes a naturally submissive role (at least "submissive" in the Thyrsian sense) to men, she is still Echani and respects strength more than gender. Courting her is as much a war as any military campaign you will ever undertake.

 

Weapon: OOO Republic: OO

Military: OO Imperial: X

Courting: O/OOO Cultural: OOO

Luxury: X Trophy: X

Tech: O Underworld: OO

 

+Synthweaving, +Archaeology

 

Edited by Kitru
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Echani Story:

 

Act 1:

 

The introductory arc focuses on your character becoming a "Journeyman" Echani (in the vein of Apprentice>Journeyman>Master) by working for your Master and proving your skills.

 

New Eshan (the starting planet) starts off with your character working for your master and advancing to the final tier of Echani training. Once you have done so, you are then informed that the Grandmaster of the Temple has called upon all masters to send their finest students to a tournament, the prize of which is to become the apprentice of said Grandmaster. You and your childhood friend (Naya Krin, who becomes your healer companion), who is also a student at your dojo, head out to the Temple to compete. After arriving at the Temple, you do some qualifying round fights (gauntlet style) and then the first round of the tournament where both of you pass; you do it easily and your friend has some difficulties. You also hear rumors of someone that is getting a lot of attention by being the one everyone thinks is going to win (cocky bastard style, like Johnny in Karate Kid). After the first round, you two separate to train some more, going off to punch the dangerous fauna and do some errands for other people at the temple. During the second round, Naya goes first and barely gets by before learning that she is facing the up-and-comer next round and that she'll likely need some help, deciding to go meditate at a special secluded waterfall or something like that. She rushes off, telling you to catch up after you finish your fight, which you, once again, handily win. You run off to the secluded waterfall meditation area to bring Naya back and do various missions along the way. The two of you head back and Naya goes first and loses after a tough fight. Before your fight, you go to comfort Naya and the douchebag that beat her comes up to rub it in her face and tells you that, even if you win, you're going to lose next round because you have to fight him. You then fight the next round and beat your opponent once again. After qualifying for the final round, Naya remarks that you're looking a bit battered and decides that, even if she's out of the tournament, she's going to go along with you any way as your cut man/medic (insert special Echani term for it here; the game would provide an accompanying codex for it, providing the cultural context and why it's so much more of a deep commitment than just sitting back and healing) because, elsewise, you're liable to hurt yourself getting to the mountaintop where the final round is taking place. The two of you journey to the mountaintop. On the way, you're attacked by the douchebag's friends who tell you that, while they're probably not going to be able to stop you from getting there, they're going to do their best to make sure you're hurting when you do to give their buddy an edge. You and Naya defeat them and make it just in time for the fight to begin. As Naya tells the Grandmaster that the rival cheated by telling his buddies to attack you on the way up, the Grandmaster says that must still fight, but, as your (insert Echani cutman term here), Naya is allowed to join you in your fight and the two of you end up defeating him, making him feel all kinds of sore. As the Grandmaster takes you as her apprentice (providing you with a special Echani title for "Apprentice to the Grandmaster"), she sends your rival off in shame for sullying the sanctity of the tournament by cheating and tells you to take the shuttle to the Republic Fleet to receive training so that you will be prepared to join her on Coruscant.

 

On Coruscant, you join the Grandmaster as her attache and end up taking care of various problems as they crop up in her diplomatic talks, specifically, participating in counterespionage with agents in the Republic that don't want the Echani to get involved again (because it would end up diminishing his political power) by hunting them down through the various areas (she can predict based on his movements and his speaking patten that he's planning to attack her in the coming meeting of the Senate). When you finally gather the evidence to silence the Senator (who is potentially an agent of the Empire) and bring them to your Grandmaster so that she can beat his *** down in debate, the Grandmaster tells you that she has to stay here, but what you've learned all that you can on your own and decides to give you a ship and promote you to (Echani term for "Journeyman") so that you can go out into the galaxy and bring back what you've learned and that, in order to progress to the rank of (Echani term for "Master"), there are things you must do. The first is to receive her endorsement, which she tells you means that you must demonstrate 3 qualities: knowledge, strength, and respect.

 

Thus ends the introductory arc. Act 1 revolves around gaining the Grandmaster's endorsement.

 

With your ship, you are left to your own devices. Naya (or your old master or a Senatorial Aid you helped out) tells you that they've heard some stuff that you might find interesting: Taris, which was home to the Taris Dueling Ring where Revan once fought, has been excavated and there has been tell of a comprehensive holorecording of every fight that ever took place there being discovered in the ruins and on Nar Shaddaa, the underworld is supposed to be home to a secret fight club focused on honing the craft.

 

As you arrive on Taris, you contact the Taris Resettlement Forces to help you find the holorecordings and get assigned an escort to help you in your search. The assistant informs you that he believes that the holorecordings should be in the ruins of the Lower City (which luckily is in the starting zone of Taris). You find the holorecording there, right before you are attacked by some pirates that are also looking for it. When you beat them, they tell you about their boss, who is a warrior that was hoping to learn as much from it as you were. You then find out that the holorecording requires a physical key to get through the encryption, which this pirate most likely has. You then proceed to bust up pirate strongholds to chase him down, doing so in the Sinking City near the hospital and the Brell Sediment by the Chemworks. After you beat up most of his crew, he agrees to meet you in Transport Station 5 (in the Tularan Marsh) where the two of you will solve this with a duel: whoever wins gets the other half of it. When you defeat him, you learn that the physical key is actually his blood, which will unlock the holorecording because he's a descendent of the person that did all of the obsessive recordings, and he's just honoring his heritage. You get to choose to either kill him and take his blood (DS) or use the blood to unlock it and then make a duplicate for him (LS).

 

On Nar Shaddaa, you are sent to meet a shadowy contact who, after vetting you by ambushing sending you into an ambush, informs you that you have to rise through the ranks to fight the champion so it's just wandering from one underground fight club to the next, beating up their respective champion and making a name for yourself. At the first club location, you see a sighting of a guy in the audience watching you who just walks away when you beat up their champ. At the second, you see him again but don't manage to talk to him. At the third, right as you enter, you see him finishing someone off right as you enter and get to fight off the group of them with him (since they accuse him of cheating or fighting dirty). He fights with an electrostaff but uses Force blasts (a la Disturbance and Telekinetic Throw) as well. He thanks you, tells you his name (Zidane Rohana) then walks off to the final fight club location where you have to actually fight him. When you beat him, he asks if he can join you and tells you that he's a fallen Jedi that left because he lost interest in the order; he doesn't ask to become your student or teacher but instead a friend, confidante, and repository of a lifetime of obscure information. He then becomes your ranged tank (like Xalek for Inquisitors except he uses Disturbance instead of Force Lightning ).

 

After completing both of those quests, your Grandmaster calls you again to see what you have learned and you describe what you gleaned from the holorecordings and your fights with all of the various non-Echani fighters on Nar Shaddaa. Impressed with your progressed, your Grandmaster tells you that you have obviously learned much and fulfilled the "knowledge" requirement. You need only fulfill the qualifications of "strength" and "respect". When you ask what they mean, the Grandmaster simply tells you that "strength" means more than being able to defeat other fighters and "respect" means honoring the history of the Echani in some great way. Zidane states that, in order to prove your strength, you could always go to Tatooine and defeat one of the strongest beasts around, a Krayt Dragon, and bring back evidence of your success. Anyone capable of defeating a Krayt Dragon would obviously be incredibly strong, in any sense of the word. Naya, a student of Echani history herself, remarks that there is an Alderaanian noble that wields the ancient Echani dueling sword owned by an Echani General centuries ago. Reclaiming the sword from the Alderaanian would adequately demonstrate your respect for Echani history. You then resolve to do both.

 

On Tatooine, you land and are told by Zidane that you should go and contact one of the hunters in Anchorhead, trackers and warriors who specialize in killing the highly dangerous wildlife of Tatooine. You head into the cantina to talk to some hunters and learn that none of them have the stones to help you find a Krayt Dragon to kill, but the Krayt Dragons are inactive (presumed to be hibernating), or too hard to find, though there is one hunter that has always wanted to take one out but never could though he learned all that he could about them: an old Trandoshan named Vayshn who sold everything to come to Tatooine to kill a Krayt Dragon only to learn that they were around. You then leave Anchorhead to find Vayshn in his decrepit little hut in the outskirts of Jundland, where he makes his living hunting womprats, feral banthas, and sand people for a pittance. After some convincing and appealing to his pride, you rekindle in Vayshn the love of the hunt and he agrees to lead you to a Krayt Dragon. The first step is acquiring the bait and only the best bait is capable of pulling the Krayt Dragons from their current slumber/rarity so you must provide a truly impressive bantha. The most impressive bantha Vayshn knows of is the companion of the leader of a tribe of Sand People that lives in the canyons in Western Jundland. When you kill the leader, Vayshn comes in to take the Bantha and tells you to meet him in the Dune Sea, where he will slaughter the Bantha to attract a Krayt Dragon for you to defeat. When you get there, Vashyn has already slaughtered the Bantha only to find that the Krayt Dragon came faster than he thought it would. The Krayt Dragon that he is fighting has dealt him a mortal blow and he asks you to collapse the cave and to weaken the Krayt Dragon such that it can be defeated. You strike the wall hard enough with your amazing Echani skills that a cave-in occurs and you have to fight the weakened Krayt Dragon, which can actually be defeated. When you return to your ship and speak to the Grandmaster about your victory, you are given the choice to either admit that you didn't defeat the Krayt Dragon alone and that you only defeated it because Vayshn told you to drop the cave on top of it (LS) or to simply claim it as your own victory completely (DS). Either way, the Grandmaster tells you that you have soundly demonstrated your strength, whether by dropping the cave in a single blade (via the LS option) and discovering that strength comes from sacrifice or by defeating the Krayt Dragon (via the DS option) and simply demonstrating your strength through brute force.

 

When you land on Alderaan, you are contacted by the scion (named Brathe Organa) who offers to give you the sword in exchange for training for himself and his house guards/buddies. When you travel to House Organa to meet the scion in person, you learned that, shortly before you got there, he lost the dueling sword to the scion of another house in a duel, which he is currently recovering from. So, in order to get "paid", you have to go get the brand in the first place. It turns out that the scion of House Baliss, after you beat it out of him, ended up paying a House Rist assassin with the sword, but, if you spare him, he'll tell you where the assassin can be found. The scion, who is called to a meeting, lets you take care of that on your own and says you should come back for a bonus when you're done getting it. After you get it, you're informed that House Ulgo set a trap for him and kidnapped him to use as leverage to get Organa to drop out of their bid for the throne. You have to go to Castle Panteer where he is currently being held to rescue him. When you rescue him, he remarks that his men no longer need the training since you've taken care of any problems they might have had and that you've already got the dueling brand he intended to pay you with. He decides to join you so that you can train him on your travels rather than having to stay on Alderaan and becomes your melee DPS companion (uses a vibroblade and medium armor).

 

Upon finishing Alderaan and Tatooine, you speak to the Grandmaster and are interrupted by another call from the rival who you defeated on Eshan. He has kidnapped your old Master and will kill her unless you agree to fight him once again, to allow him to prove that he is the stronger. He tells you that he is currently on an old derelict space station he and his ilk have taken over. Once there, Naya insists on joining to to rescue your old master. You must fight through the gauntlet of his buddies while getting taunted and jeered at over the intercom. Right as you get to the bridge, your rival kills your old master just to anger you and the duel commences. When you defeat him, Naya desperately wants to kill him, and you are given the option of letting her (DS) or stopping her (LS). When you get back to your ship, the Grandmaster mourns the loss of your master with you and tells you to take a short rest before going about honoring your old master's legacy by becoming a master as he was since you have more than fulfilled her requirements for endorsement.

 

Thus ends Act 1.

 

 

Act 2:

 

Act 2 revolves around finishing the rest of what's required to become a master.

 

When you get back from your break, the Grandmaster tells you that one of her old friends would probably be willing to provide her endorsement for you as well. Last she heard, she was on Balmorra, though that was before the Empire invaded. Even so, the Grandmaster's friend is too skilled of a warrior to have been taken out so easily. She tells you to call her once you've reached Balmorra.

 

When you get there, the Grandmaster tells you that her friend is also a Grandmaster but was made so because she was a specialist with Echani personal shields; no one in all of the Galaxy is as skilled with designing and utilizing shields as she is. The Republic hired her to design and develop for mass production a series of shields for the Republic Special Forces for the inevitable war. Her laboratory is in what is now Bugtown and you must go there to figure out where she has holed herself up. You fight your way through hordes of bugs to get to the engineer's workshop. Deep inside, you find out that she had 4 prototypes of her new advanced personal shield prototype that were taken when the Empire invaded. The chaos of the rampaging Colicoids prevented her from going out to recover them. You then proceed to hunt down the 4 prototypes and beating up the Imperials and Sith that are using them. The prototypes don't actually have increased value for the average fighter; the tweaks allow a skilled duelist to alternate between providing a shield and providing a destabilizing field that prevents shields from being effective so that, if you can predict when a blow is coming, you activate the shield and reverse it when you intend to strike. As such, most of those you fight against can't really use them effectively (and, in fact, one of them is so incapable of using it effectively that it's actually worse than using a standard shield and he remarks on it during the fight). There would be a couple sword fighters, the first of which can't seem to fight with it effectively, an imperial agent/sniper that uses the shield in conjuction with their defense screen, and finally a Sith Warrior. The others have problems using the shield and only get marginal benefit out of it and only the final boss (in the final Balmorra zone) has actually practiced with it such that you actually might have a problem with them (the first gets no benefit, the second has a bonus to damage dealt and damage received, the third has a decrease to damage taken for 5 seconds every 10, and the final boss alternates between getting a +def chance and dealing 20% more damage), but, the overuse of the variation ends up causing the shield to explode when they are reduced to 20% hp. The Echani engineer then thanks you and comments that she said they were prototypes and that they weren't ready for production before providing you with one of them, locked into a single mode so that it doesn't blow up in your face.

 

After completing Balmorra, you learn that, while the Grandmaster's friend is unwilling to endorse you at this moment, she recognizes that you have potential, even if you lack grace and precision. The only thing to do is to prove to her that you're worth it. To prove your worth, the Grandmaster suggests that it might be possible to prove yourself by taking out one of the Grandmaster's old apprentices who has turned traitor and is running with the Empire. The apprentice insisted on a fight with the Grandmaster herself, but the Grandmaster decides to send you to Quesh instead, to prove your skill against an exceptionally skilled old student that has only gotten better. On Quesh, you head to the assigned dueling location and the ex-student is deeply insulted by the Grandmaster sending a proxy and proceeds to go *******, using stims and adrenals to become way too strong. The Grandmaster arrives just in time to save your life and fight him off long enough for the adrenals to stop working. As the effects of the adrenals fade, the Grandmaster moves to save your life and your new rival runs away to a waiting Imperial shuttle as your vision slowly fades. When you come to, the Grandmaster and your companions are around you, thankful just to see you alive. The Grandmaster tells you that she has something in mind for you and that you should contact her when you are ready for your training to be taken to the next level.

 

When you contact the Grandmaster again, she tells you about her old master, who, after finishing the Grandmaster's training and seeing her become the new Grandmaster, in order to avoid any interruptions in his quest for martial perfection, went the to the most inhospitable planet to live alone as a hermit and perfect himself. While she doesn't know where he is *on* the planet, she does know which one it is: Hoth. When you head to Hoth, she tells you to talk to the soldiers stationed there; even if he does his best to avoid attention, someone is going to inevitably see him. You speak to a few soldiers in Aurek base, who tell you they've seen an old man walking in the middle of snowstorms in the mountain of the southern Whiterock Wastes. You find a cave there with signs of human habitation and a trail in the back that leads to a mountaintop with the old man shattering blocks of ice with his bare fists. When he sees you, he asks you who you are and why you're here. When you explain yourself, he decides to fight you to see if you're worth training. After you fight, he agrees to teach you (he is an animal mimicry fighter that uses attacks like "Wampa Slam" "Rancor Surge" and "Whitefang Rush"), using Miyagi-like methods (beat up whitefangs and, by fighting them, you'll learn how to do the Whitefang Rush; or "jump off this massively tall cliff" and it ends up teaching you to do the Wampa Slam) for each of the techniques, the last of which requires you go to the Starship Graveyard to do whatever you were supposed to. After learning all of the techniques from him, he states that he enjoyed teaching and that he might consider taking on more disciples after you, but he'll have to think on it more. When you get back to the ship, the Grandmaster asks how the old man is and reminisces a bit. Upon being told that you have trained with the Grandmaster's old master, the Grandmaster's friend agrees to endorse you since anyone that survived the old man's training has to be good.

 

Upon receiving the second endorsement, the Grandmaster tells you to return to Eshan to a gathering of the Masters and Grandmasters so that they can test you to determine whether you're worthy of the title. Upon returning, you head into the Conclave of Masters and are forced to endure a "take on all comers" challenge from the masters where the masters question your fitness both physically, by literally fighting you, and mentally, by questioning you. After talking to and defeating all of the masters that don't think you're up to it, they finally bestow upon you the title "Master" (or, instead, the Echani equivalent).

 

And thus ends Act 2.

 

 

Act 3:

 

Act 3 focuses on your responsibilities as a Master and perfecting your own personal style.

 

Upon becoming a Master, with the war in full swing, the other masters are involved in taking care of their relevant duties. The Council of Grandmasters, in dealing with you as a new Master have decided that they want to you investigate a matter on the prison planet of Belsavis. They debated whether they should put you on this job until they heard about your duel with the Grandmaster's ex-student and your current rival. Originally, the Grandmasters believed she had been killed by a squad of Jedi dispatched to bring her to justice, but, as it turns out, they instead imprisoned her on Belsavis. Her crimes, such as they were, were of little consequence to the Echani, who saw her methods as draconian but effective: she was reknowned for the almost cult-like atmosphere of her training regime and the sheer number of deaths in the ranks of her students, many of which were said to have been killed by her own hands for failing. The Republic branded her a mass murderer and cult leader and considered her too dangerous to be place anywhere except for Belsavis and the Echani too uncaring to be told the truth of it. After they shut down her training arenas in Republic space but before she could be captured, she took a student, your rival, and trained him in her lethal techniques. The Council of Grandmasters, who learned of the true breadth of her behavior only when the Jedi took her down and informed them of her death, want you to head down to Belsavis and find out what became of this Master before bringing her to face justice from the Grandmasters. When you finally get there, you get into contact with one of the Prison Guards tells you where to start and you begin hunting her down and discover that she has actually set up dojos reminiscent of gladiatorial arenas, teaching only those prisoners with the skill, desire, and bloodlust to kill their own compatriots; it becomes apparent that her methods have only gotten darker with her imprisonment. You fight through several of these dojos, defeating the prisoners in charge of overseeing the progress of the adherents, hunting her down, to learn that she is currently off in the deep prisons with her #1 disciple: a Nikto from Nar Shaddaa named Gafsun Threefist that you made look like a chump when you blew through the fight club in the Nikto sector earlier in the story. When you finally get to the deep prisons, you fight and defeat him but are forced to deal with a massive beast the master unleashes upon you to cover their escape. In the final confrontation, with a wounded Gafsun watching, you and the master enter a duel. When you win, the defeated master offers you a compromise: instead of turning her over to the Council of Grandmasters, she shall provide you with the location of a training scroll detailing her greatest techniques if you simply tell the Council that you were forced to kill her and allow her to run away. Either way, since you defeated his great master, Gafsun asks if he can instead become your disciple because your kung-fu is obviously stronger. He becomes your melee tank (using a fist weapon and a shield generator).

 

After taking care of the master on Belsavis, the council contacts you again and tells you that the new planet Voss has been discovered and able to maintain its independence from the military incursions of both militaries, something that not even the Mandalorians could accomplish for long. Completely alien to the Echani, your companions suggest that the combat techniques of the Voss have to have something to contribute if they're capable of such incredibly success against overpowering forces. When you land, you are told to speak to a Voss Commando named Kassen-Jol who informs you that she was told many years ago that she would one day find the greatest warrior on all of Voss and agrees to act as your chaperone as your move to find him. You travel through the various Voss territories only to discover that none of them can really compete. Eventually, you are called into the Gormak Territories to deal with a highly skill Gormak squad. When you defeat them, you learn that all of them learned from an old Gormak master who lives deep in the Nightmare Lands. Kassen-Jol refuses to believe that the greatest master on the planet could be a Gormak instead of a Voss and runs away. You, not having been affected by her racial prejudices, decide to find this master anyways. You fight your way through the cave where he is supposed to be, fighting off enraged Vorantiki and other monstrous beasts, to discover the master meditating atop a great crystal. When you finally get there, Kassen-Jol arrives just in time to see you begin speaking to the Gormak master and, ignoring your protests, instead attacks him, forcing you to fight the Gormak master. When you defeat him, you are allowed to either go along with Kassen-Jol and kill the Gormak master (DS) or to allow him to live (LS). When you are done, you head back to Voss-ka where the mystics tell Kassen-Jol to join with you and learn and observe from you. Kassen-Jol then joins as your rdps (using a blaster rifle and vibroknife OH).

 

When you have finished Voss, you learn that all of the Echani Grandmasters have been called to Corellia to deal with the elite Echani trained Imperial Guard and the Empire's Thyrsian allies. Having dealt with the issues on Voss, you arrive late, after the other masters have already spread out. You must follow the various masters and rescue them while defeating the prized students and keeping the secrets of Echani fighting out of the Empire's hands. After defeating all of the entrenching Imperial Guards and rescuing the overwhelmed masters, you finally catch up to the Grandmaster and your rival his base of operations for the Corellia campaign. The Grandmaster locks you out and challenges your rival to single combat but ends up getting defeated and killed. While your rival revels in his victory, you and your companions manage to open the door, allowing you to face your rival along with the last of his students. Together, you and your companions end up defeating him. In recognition of you victory over someone that had managed to defeat so many, including the Grandmaster, the assembled Grandmasters and Masters universally agree that you shall be the Echani High Protector, as the greatest Echani warrior in the galaxy.

 

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Thyrsian Story:

 

Act 1:

 

The introductory arc focuses on your character becoming and settling into a member of the Thyrsian Sun Guard, honor guards of the sacred Sun Blade.

 

Thyrsus, the starting planet, starts off with your character being told that they have made it to the final round of the intense selection process, which is also the most difficult and deadly. You shall be dropped deep inside the Thyrsian savannah and must fight your way back to the Thyrsian encampment as the first leg of the race. A fellow competitor (Jaku Makinen, who becomes a melee DPS companion) tells you to as all of the others race off that, in order to survive, you'll need to rehydrate and then proceeds to heading out himself. You follow his wise advice and then continue on the death race when you're done. At the encampment, you are told where to head for the next leg of the race. The same competitor as before remarks, as he is catching his breath, that a flash flood is coming and a bad one at that. As you move towards the next checkpoint, you notice that the sky is darkening as the storm approaches. You'll need to find cover to not be taken out with the rest of the flood, but, thankfully, there is a cave nearby. When you enter, you have to clear it out of the local wildlife that has gotten the same idea that you have. After waiting a few hours, the storm abates and you continue on your way. If you want, you can salvage some gear from the other competitors that died in the flood while you head to the checkpoint. Even fewer of your competitors has managed to make it, but the one that helped you before is still there. It's here that you're told that they've found evidence that one of the competitors has been killing the others. It's a death race, but it's supposed to be the race that kills you, not each other. The Thyrsians running the race have decided to end it, but, the cries of the competitors drown them out, saying that they will take care of this murderer if need be. The Thyrsians, swayed by the bravado and courage of the competitors, decide to allow it to continue. You notice that the helpful competitor remained silent throughout. You're directed to the next encampment. On the way there, a competitor remarks that he and another competitor were attacked but he managed to escape. If asked who it was, the competitor tells you that it was the quiet one. He ran ahead of them all and set some traps. You're told where to find the other competitor, to help him out as well as to attack the murderer. When you get there, all you see is a corpse and the silent competitor off on the horizon, leaving the scene. You get to the checkpoint and inform the Thyrsian watchers that the murderer has struck again. The non-silent competitor has managed to make it and throws an accusation at the quiet competitor who says that he has no evidence. The Thyrsian guards ask you if you know who the murderer is, but, regardless of answer, you're incapable of proving it. Once again they try to end the race, but even the normally quiet competitor voices his opposition. You're once again directed to next. On the way to the penultimate checkpoint, you see signs of a struggle and follow them to a cave. In there you see the silent competitor pinned under a rock, under attack by local fauna. When you fight off the beasts, you're able to confront the silent competitor and interrogate him to learn that he tracked the other competitor, the one that is the actual murderer, here and was going to force a confession from him. In the fight, the murderer managed to get the better of him and trapped him under a rock before escaping. The two of you will need to work together to catch up to him and bring him to justice. You rescue the silent competitor, he joins as your companion, and you head to the next to last checkpoint. There, you are told that the man you know as the murderer has already left for the summit, where you are to climb and bring back the solar pendant left there as sign of your ascent. You head there and, as you reach the top, you are confronted by the murderer who has just gotten the solar pendant. He then declares his intent to kill the both of you and claim that your companion killed you and he killed your companion in self defense. No one can stand in his way of joining the Sun Guard. You proceed to fight and defeat him, followed by the option to either kill him or take him back alive to face his punishment. Either way, when you return, having defeated the murderer, you are both lauded and rewarded with a place on the Sun Guard: normally only one competitor is given the right of joining, but, having retrieved the pendant *and* brought the murderer to justice, they can see no reason to exclude either of you and bestow upon you the title of "Legionnaire". Your first mission, as members of the Sun Guard, is to join the rest of the Guard and accompany the Sun Blade to Dromund Kaas, which is being loaned to the Imperial Museum for the Reclamation Service to study and marvel at as part of a cultural exchange to cement the alliance of the Thyrsian System to the Empire. You are heading there indepently, so as to avoid attracting the attention of raiders or thieves.

 

After passing through the Imperial Fleet to gain your advanced training, you arrive on Dromund Kaas where the first order of business is rejoining the Sun Guard in Kaas City. When you get there, you see a great commotion taking place involving both human raiders as well as attack droids. After defeating the attackers, the Sun Guard informs you that the museum was raided and the Sun Blade stolen. The Sun Guard must be the ones to retrieve it, their honor will not allow it otherwise. All of the other Sun Guards are injured from the conflict, so it is up to you. You're told by the attending investigators from Intelligence that the humanoid attackers were slaves (before the Thyrsian Sun Guard violently bludgeoned them to death with their bare hands, much to Intelligence's chagrin since there were no survivors to interrogate) and you head out to Unfinished Colossus to find out anything you can. Once there, you are told that the slaves were hired and equipped by a member of Lord Grathan's retinue so you head there. When you interrogate said member of Lord Granthan's, he informs you that the Sun Blade was stolen so as to be used as leverage to force Thyrsus to assist Lord Grathan in his quest to declare himself the 13th member of the Dark Council. The Sun Blade was moved, however, upon hearing about the failure of the droids to incapacitate all members of the Sun Guard and taken to a secret hiding place in the Dark Temple. You head to the Dark Temple into the secret hiding place to find that the House Grathan loyalists have been driven insane by the dark side energies and must be killed. After defeating all of them, you search the area without being able to find the Sun Blade. As you're finishing your search, you detect some movement out of the corner of your eye and turn just in time to see a scavenger bolt out of the room, carrying the Sun Blade. You are attacked by even more possessed people and lose track of the thief in the commotion. You holocall back about the abduction of the Sun Blade and are told to report back. It is decided that the thief managed to get off planet via a smuggler's ship or something similar and that you must now carry the banner of the Sun Guard to the stars to hunt down the thief. The Sun Guard provides you with a ship and you head out into the Galaxy to retrieve the blade.

 

You are told by the recovering Sun Guard that Intelligence has tipped them off as to a location that the thief might try to fence the Sun Blade: on the newly conquered planet of Balmorra, a high ranking Admiral with a distinct interest in Echani and Thyrsian culture and a willingness to approach the black market for interesting items has been stationed; the Sun Guard also have a possible clue on Nar Shaddaa, where the a Hutt weapon collector who repeatedly offered to buy the sacred blade and was consistently rebuffed lives.

 

On Balmorra, you learn that the Admiral has left Sobrik to go on an inspection in the Gorinth Canyon. You head there and, after you beat up his guards as well as him, he tells you that he hasn't bought the Sun Blade yet and was only doing this inspection to provide himself with a logical reason to head to the Makaran Plains, where he's agreed to meet the thief at a secret location. In exchange for his life, he gives you the location (though you're capable of killing him and blaming rebels if you want). At the meeting place, you overhear the thief say that he's got a strange feeling about this. As you enter, the thief immediately realize that you're not he buyer (he was expecting an Admiral, after all) and sicks a few suborned droids on you to cover his escape. Since the Empire has Sobrik locked down, the only way for him to get off the planet is to head to the Vehicle Hangar in the Sundari Flatlands. When you've gotten there, the thief unleashes a coopted battle droid to cover his escape, which he does.

 

On Nar Shaddaa, the Hutt is initial reluctant to allow you to visit him but, after you force you way in and take out a number of his guards, he acquiecses and tells you that, while he was willing to buy the Sun Blade, he would never think of stealing it, lest he draw the ire of the great Thyrsian Sun Guard, which he appears to have done inadvertently anyways. He did, however, receive an offer to sell the Sun Blade that he would be more than willing to share, to see the blade returned to its rightful owners, though he has already sent out one of his enforcers, a Gamorrean by the name of Googruk (becomes rDPS companion) to capture the thief. If you hurry, you should be able to catch up to them. When you get there, the thief has already gotten away and the Gamorrean is in the process of being chewed out by the Hutt for allowing him to get away. To prevent the thief's escape, you need to know where he's going and then proceed to lock his ship, a feat most easily accomplished by hacking the Hutt data center and accessing their docking cameras and manipulating their docking files. Once you've completed it, you discover the ship that the thief is attempting to escape on and hurry there. When you arrive, the thief is frantically attempting to remove the take off restriction you placed. As you are about to capture him, you receive a call from the Hutt, who thanks you for finding the thief and making it so easy to get the Sun Blade so cheaply. He has sent his enforcers and enough troops to make sure that you die and the thief doesn't get away while proceeding to once again chew out Googruk for failing to take care of the thief before the Sun Guard got involved. Fed up with being chewed out, Googruk levels his blaster at the Hutt's troops and fires, deciding that he'd rather join up with you since, even if the pay is worse, you're liable to at least treat him better. You and Googruk defeat the Hutt's troops but the thief uses that time to remove the takeoff restriction and get away.

 

The Sun Guard, disappointed that you allowed the thief to escape twice but satisfied that you are still hot on his trail gives you a pair of leads: Intelligence has told the Sun Guard of an underworld auction taking place on Tatooine, sponsored by the Exchange, that the thief could use to monetize his ill gotten gains; the Sun Guard believes that the Houses of Alderaan, home to some of the wealthiest nobles in the galaxy, are more willing to attract the thief.

 

When you get to Tatooine, it's decided that, since the thief seems to be such a monumental coward and has seen you twice already, a bit of subterfuge is in order. The Sun Guard gives you the location of an Intelligence asset that has been provided to them that knows how to get into the auction who happens to live in Mos Ila. The asset has already created an escrow account with enough credits in it to get you a seat in the room, but you need to meet with the Exchange agent to be told the location and given the password. After meeting with her in the smuggler's cave in the outskirts of Moss Ila, you're directed a cave out in Jundland and told the password. Once you get there, you're challenged by a group of Exchange thugs asking for the password who allow you in. Inside, you see a large number of criminals, including representatives of various crime lords and other nefarious individuals getting ready for the bidding but you can't find the thief. Shortly thereafter, the auction begins and you see a number of ancient relics drawing impressive prices. Eventually, the Sun Blade comes up to the block, held by the thief himself. As he is scanning the room, he notices you and lets lose a girlish cry before calling you a member of Intelligence or the SIS and hightailing it with the Sun Blade. Having been called out, many of the criminals flee and the Exchange guards descend upon you, forcing you to beat them senseless before being able to catch back up the the thief. Your contact in Mos Ila informs you that no ships have left in either Mos Ila or Anchorhead, but the thief was seen fleeing the auction on foot. The thief must have landed and hid his ship in a largely unused natural refuge in the Dune Sea. You're directed there, only to find the thief under attack by a cadre of criminals and thugs. The thief apparently tried to abscond with a number of other relics in the chaos and their "rightful" owners are upset about it. However, said, criminals and thugs aren't really going to believe that you're not SIS/Intelligence so they split their attention attacking you and the thief. As you approach, beating down the criminal enforcers, the thief, seeing you, panics, leaves the crates of relics he was attempting to load, and just bolts for his ship, getting away once again, but leaving some stolen relics for you to either return to their rightful owners or keep for yourself.

 

Your contact on Alderaan is a Thul noble who tells you that he received an invitation to a private auction for the Sun Blade. After hearing of your coming, he decided it was in his best interest to pass the information on to you so as not to draw the ire of the Sun Guard. He gives you the location where the auction is supposed to take place and begs your forgiveness. You head there to find a Rist ambush waiting for you. After defeating them, you find the corpses of the other invited nobles but don't find the thief, the Rist noble, or the Sun Blade which leads you to conclude that House Rist decided it would be easier to steal the Sun Blade. The lack of the thief's body is a mystery, but it's more important to find the Sun Blade. You head to House Rist to get some answers by beating them out of people and learn about the Rist noble that attacked the auction. Apparently, the thief didn't actually bring the Sun Blade with him and the Rist noble had to kipnap him to take him to where the thief hid it, somewhere in Glarus Valley. The Rist noble is still in contact so they can tell you where he went. You head to the meeting point to confront the Rist noble and have to fight your way through a cave complex full of Rist soldier assassins. At the back end, in a large cavern, you see the Rist noble having a conversation with the cavern. Upon seeing you, the Rist noble turns and attacks, thinking you're in league with the thief. It turns out that, upon digging up the Sun Blade, the thief ran and activated a stolen stealth generator and had been hiding inside the cavern. By killing the Rist soldiers and the noble, you've allowed the thief to get out with the Sun Blade.

 

After finishing up both Alderaan and Tatooine, the Sun Guard informs you that Intelligence has succeeded in tracking down where the thief keeps holding up in between attempts to sell the Sun Blade: a derelict space station thought to have been beyond repair. Apparently, the thief has somehow repaired it and has been using it as a safe refuge. Now that you know where he's been hiding out, it shouldn't be too hard to get there and make sure he can't escape, especially if you destroy his ship so that his only other option is hard vacuum. You drop out of hyperspace and immediately blow up the ship docked with the station before boarding the station yourself. After smashing the few paltry defenses the thief activates as you move through the ship (using the PA to beg you not to kill him as you go through), you finally get to the final room where the thief activates a final defense: a centuries long deactivated HK unit who, upon activation, decides that it would like to lock down the entire station, kill all of you, and then go on its merry way in your ship. The HK, a master sniper with highly sophisticated stealth and self repair protocols, vanishes and reappears in a different sniper perch whenever you manage to get him low on health. After a couple rounds of this, a large crate comes crashing down from above the both of you and the only reason you avoid it is because of a warning cry from the thief. The thief immediately begs you not to kill him and begins apologizing prolifically in the most pitiful manner possible. Since you kind of helped save your life, you're willing to spare his if you get the Sun Blade back. The thief then mentions that that's kind of what he's apologizing about and then leads you to a case where you see the Sun Blade lying in a number of pieces, some of which have disintegrated into dust. He has no clue what happened, but the thing just broke as he was escaping after trying to escape the last time. He also states that he didn't plan to steal the Sun Blade; he just kinda took it because it was there and looked expensive and rare. He had no clue it was so rare and whatnot. Moved by his pathetic display, you show mercy (or inordinate cruelty) and decide to allow the thief to join your crew (or be forced to work on your crew as your personal slave, since he doesn't deserve to die by your hand).

 

 

Act 2:

 

Upon retrieving the now broken Sun Blade and bringing it back to Thyrsus, much dishonor is had by all. You've retrieved the blade, but it is broken and, as such, so is the Sun Guard itself. In order to restore honor to yourself and the Sun Guard, you must reforge the Sun Blade, but the only known man capable of restoring the blade is a man by the name of Smith Kilvarri (who will become your rTank companion), though he hasn't been heard of for the past couple of months. Last they were told, he was hired by the Republic to assist in the rebuilding efforts on Taris. He might still be there, even after the Empire cut off the rebuilding efforts.

 

On Taris, you're directed to talk to one of the Imperial officers on the ground. He informs you that the most likely place to find him is in the Chemworks. He was hired by the Republic to rebuild the Chemworks and is probably still there. You fight through the Rakghouls there just in time to see him defending himself from a Rakghoul onslaught. You fight them off and see that he has actually been infected. He has seen what happens to the infected and begs for you to kill him. You say that you can't because you need him to fix the Sun Blade (as only he can) and, reluctantly, he tells you that the only solution is going to be finding the cure, but first he needs a new place to hole himself up. He's injured by he can still move. Since the Empire still probably wants him dead since he worked for the Republic and helped reinforce the base that is still a thorn in their side, not to mention that, if he does turn, it wouldn't be the best idea for him to be in a place with a lot of potentially innocent victims nearby, he tells you to clear the way to one of the defunct reactor rooms in the Tularan Marsh: the Rakghouls avoid them like the plague and, when he gets there, he can fix the reactor so that the radiation doesn't bake him. You clear the way and call him; he arrives and tells you to leave. There is supposed to be a sample of the cure somewhere in the ruins of Dynamet General in the Sinking City. Go there and find the cure, hopefully before he turns. You get there and learn that the Republic has already made off with it. You'll need to attack the Republic base in the Resettlement Zone in order to recover a sample of the cure. Once you've retrieved the cure, you head back to the reactor room to see Smith writhing in pain, the change already in process. You administer the cure immediately and it seems to be working, until he falls over, apparently dead. Suddenly, he starts shaking violently and transforms into a slimmer, less ******* Rakghoul form: that of a Nekghoul. Initially, you prepare to fight him but the Nekghoul speaks with Smith's voice telling you that his mind is still there. With a sadistic smile and a villainous gleam in his eye, he tells you that he will head to your ship and tell you of everything else that he will need to repair the Sun Blade and how he looks forward to everything, walking off with a saunter and a cackle.

 

On your ship, Smith has been ripping through your stores, your companions disturbed by the presence of such a monster on the ship but you tell them to calm down and introduce the monster as Smith Kilvarri, or at least the closest you're gonna get. Kilvarri informs you that, in order to repair the Sun Blade from its current state, he'll need better materials than what you've got on hand. The blade is made of a cortosis alloy, and, as such, requires a substantial amount of pure cortosis to form the basis of the alloy. You first need to get your hands on some ingots of pure metallic cortosis. Smith was negotiating with a Hutt on Quesh who had managed to get its hands on some bars before he left to work the Taris job. It would stand to reason that the Hutt would still have it. You proceed to Quesh and meet with the Hutt where you're presented with the option to either take the cortosis by force (which requires you fight your way out of the Hutt's warehouse filled with guards) or perform a job for said Hutt and accept the cortosis as payment. Either way, you leave Quesh with the cortosis.

 

Back on the ship, Smith Kilvarri tells you that he'll need a forge to make the cortosis alloy, one of extraordinary power considering cortosis' heat and energy resistant properties. He originally considered repurposing the ship's ion drive to create a functional forge, but those engines aren't strong enough. To create the cortosis alloy he needs, he'll need to create pressures and temperatures only seen inside stars and, for that, he'll need the ion drive of one of the largest ships that fly the Galaxy: the functonal ion drive of a capital ship. It's commented that no one is going to allow Smith to "borrow" a capital ship ion drive to turn into his personal forge, but Erisi mentions that they might not need to find someone else to donate one to their cause if they can just salvage one. While the interstellar wrecks of capital ships are generally either quickly recovered or reduced to their constituent components by the damage that *makes* them wrecks, there's bound to be at least one functional capital ship ion drive somewhere on the starship graveyard on Hoth. With a sadistic smile, Smith mentions that Hoth would be an excellent place to go because it will also have the final ingredient needed: a living apex predator. When asked why, Smith smiles and remarks that the star-forged blade must be quenched in the heart of a great predator so that the spirit and drive of the creature will pass into the blade. Without it, the blade will lack spirit and be just little more than a hunk of sharp, expensive metal, rather than a weapon to lead armies.

 

So, you head to Hoth. Your first order of business is get permission from the local authorities to salvage the ion drive. An Intelligence Officer greets you as you get off your ship and tells you that the salvage rights belong to the Imperial Navy. In order to avoid being labeled as a thief and shot out of the sky, you'll need to do some work to earn the salvage rights. Luckily, the officer tells you that he's got a job perfect for you (it's pretty apparent he doesn't actually care about salvaging the ion drive at all; he's just using it as leverage to get you to take care of a problem for him): a Republic SIS squad infiltrated an Imperial base just before you got here and absconded with their communications protocols and he needs you to go attack them and determine whether the Imperial communications network has been compromised. You find a cave where the Republic Forces have bunkered down, and, when you get to the back, you find that White Maw forces got to the Republic Forces first and stole the stolen communications protocols from them (their leader is actually bedridden and injured so he can't even fight back). You can then either kill the leader or take him prisoner. Back at base, you arrive to see that your contact is missing and are contacted via secure holoterminal. A new officer tells you that the other officer has been "dismissed" for his failure to maintain proper security protocols. Your new contact tells you to meet him at Leth Outpost if you still want that salvage chit. Once there, you're informed that you need to track down the pirates and get the protocols back before the white Maw break the encryption or sell it off. He's been able to determine that the White Maw have contacted the Republic and have set up a buy. You need to go break that up. You head there and break it up. Once you've done that, you return to find the camp has been attacked and abducted during his rounds, not by the Republic, but by a massive wampa. The transponder in the officer's neck indicates that he's still alive, but injured and unconscious, in a cave somewhere in the Glacial Fissure. Smith tells you to bring it back alive. You follow the transponder signal, fight the wampa (making sure to take it alive), and rescue the Intelligence Officer, who provides you with the salvage chip upon being returned to base. You then head to the Starship Graveyard. You work through the various wrecks trying to find a functional ion drive. The first and second wrecks are missing vital components. You descend into the Star of Coruscant to discover that a (named) White Maw engineer is attempting to bring the ship's ion drive back online and cannibalized the other drives in order to bring this one online. You fight through his crew and eventually fight him to clear out that wing of the ship. You signal your ship to fly over, allowing Smith Kilvarri to oversee the salvage of the ion drive and call the Intelligence Officer to meet you at the spaceport for you to cash in your salvage chit. The ion drive is so large that it has to be dragged into orbit by your ship.

 

After getting the wampa, the materials, and the ion drive, Smith tells you that you need to drag the ion drive into orbit around a planet so that he can perform the necessary modifications to turn it into a suitable forge. You drag it into orbit around Thyrsus and Smith gets to work finishing the modifications shortly. Once completed, he asks you to join him for the reforging of the Sun Blade. Epic reforging sequence ensues, and Kilvarri declares the Sun Blade reforged. You present the newly remade Sun Blade to the Thyrsian High Council and they declare you the new leader of the Sun Guard and bearer of the Sun Blade. Upon completing the Act, you receive either a Fist Weapon version of the Sun Blade (a large golden blade attached to your forearm) or a Double Vibroblade version (2 Sun Blades attached to a single haft) and the title of Solar Champion.

 

 

Act 3:

 

To start off the third act, you're told that war has broken out between the Empire and Republic once again. Before the unit can head into combat once again, you need to bolster your numbers, but it would take too long to recruit and train new members. Luckily, the Thyrsians have heard news that a contingent of Sun Guard soldiers captured and presumed dead during the Thyrsian Rebellion were apparently taken to the prison planet Belsavis. The Empire has gained a foothold on the planet in order to free their own troops so you need to head there.

 

On getting to Belsavis, you don't know where the Sun Guard is being kept prisoner. After describing the Sun Guard to the officer on hand at the landing, he tells you your best bet is to interrogate the other prisoners. If the Sun Guard remained as organized as they likely would have, they would have carved out a reputation and territory. You proceed to beat up prisoners until you learn of a gang leader that you can interrogate who tells you that he remembers from decades back that a crew of professional soldiers that went by that name were brought here and formed up a gang but, after attempting to escape too many times (and getting a little too close each time, even when they had no weapons or armor and were monumentally outnumbered), it was decided that the only safe way to imprison them was to put them in stasis, but he doesn't know *which* stasis prison they're in. To learn that, you'll need to break into the prison data banks in the High Security Section. Once you get there, you are met by a cadre of Echani fighters and are told that they are under orders to specifically prevent you from freeing the Sun Guard. You defeat them and hack the data banks to learn where the Sun Guard are being stored. While you are doing so, you receive a call on the holotransponder. An Echani master greets you and tells that now that you've learned where the Sun Guard are, nothing is going to stop you from freeing them so she has no choice: she will simply get there first and kill them all, like she wanted to do in the first place. You race off to the Maximum Security Section to where the stasis pods are. When you get there, the Echani are in the process of opening the stasis pods and killing the Sun Guard by gangin up on them. You manage to save a few of the Sun Guard soldiers and learn that the Echani Master, rather than giving you the chance to rescue all of them, had some of the stasis chambers moved as soon as you learned of their location. The terminal tells you that she is calling from the Tombs where you proceed. Venturing into the Tombs, you fight through all of her students, rescuing more of the Sun Guard along the way before meeting her in what promises to be a final confrontation. You proceed to fight the Echani Master, though before you can defeat her, she informs you that she activated the chamber's purge function before you entered (which will fill the area with lava). If you continue to fight her and manage to kill her, you might be able to escape but all of the stasis chambers will be destroyed. If you stop now, you might be able to save a few of them before the room fills with lava. You are forced to allow her to flee as you run to the stasis chambers to open them. You open as many as you can and everyone runs out, Indiana Jones style (only with lava instead of a giant boulder). Outside the purged chamber (closed off by a massive door), the leader of the rescued Sun Guard introduces herself as Aurora Makinen (joins as mDPS companion), the ranking officer of their group, and the lot of them head back to your ship. When you get back to the ship, Jaku and Aurora meet and discover that Aurora is actually Jaku's mother, who he thought was dead. Drama/emotion ensues.

 

After finishing Belsavis, the High Council informs you that the Sun Guard you rescued are being taken back to Thyrsus to be equipped and retrained. In the mean time, you're to prepare for military operations. The Echani Master that you fought on Belsavis sends you a message and tells you that she is going to train on Voss, to improve her already impressive skills by learning from the mystics that are actually capable of seeing the future rather than simply able to analyze movements based on instinct and training. When she is done, the two of you will meet again on the field of battle to see who is truly the better warrior. As such, you head to Voss to see if you cannot gain the same advantage. When you get there, you are told by the Voss that, if you desire similar training, you must consult the Mystics at the Shrine of Healing and bring them a Vorantikus spine, a shaclaw claw, and a mawvorr horn. You arrive to partake in the ritual as the Echani Master is limping out of the ritual chamber. You trade glances but are told that you are forbidden from fighting here. If you do, the Voss will refuse to do the ritual for you. Inside, the Voss make a strange concoction from the animal parts you bring and tell you to drink it though they warn you that it is highly poisonous and, even then, is not guaranteed to succeed. You drink it and experience crippling pain before blacking out. You wake up in a rest chamber and are told that the Echani Master has already left heading to the Gormak Lands after determining that the ritual did not grant her precognitive abilities she desired. It has, however, granted the both of you incredible strength and endurance. You follow her to the Gormak Lands and learn that she has gone on something of a rampage, ripping through the Gormak. You stumble upon the scene of one of her rampages and find a Gormak barely clinging to life. He tells you that she learned of a forbidden ritual that she can undertake deep in the Nightmare Lands that could give her the power she desires before expiring. You head to the Nightmare Lands to confront her. Deep within a crystal filled cave, you fight through her Echani students and arrive to see her standing before a Gormak altar. She greets you with a mad smile upon her face, obviously driven a bit insane, and tells you that she can now see the future (her eyes are now like a Voss). She saw you defeating her students and knows that she will defeat you, but here is not the place. She strikes the ground and lets lose a blast of green/black/purple/gold energy from her outstretched hand, causing a cave in and summoning a massive vorantikus to cover her withdrawal. When you get back to your ship, you learn that she has already left and headed to Corellia, where you are now being dispatched at the head of the now fully equipped and ready Sun Guard.

 

On Corellia, you are told that the Republic is making great advances, apparently able to predict their troop movements in a manner that baffles the entire Imperial military. You tell them who it is (the Echani Master you met on Voss) and inform them that you'll take her out. You proceed from strategic location to strategic location, defeating her troops but getting caught in masterfully planned ambushes and misdirections. The Republic is winning but the Echani are overextending themselves and you learn that the Master herself is directing the conflict from her ship in orbit. You command your Sun Guard to continue attacking, in a feint intended to convince the Republic that you are still commanding the main body of your troops while you commandeer an Echani shuttle and take the fight straight to the Master. You get up there and fight your way through her greatest students before finally finding her at the bridge of her ship. There she tells you that she has seen her victory and that you have already lost. You fight and you manage to defeat her. As the her life slips away, her eyes return to normal and she wonders how she lost since she saw her victory so vividly. You return to Thyrsus and are rewarded with the position and title of Supreme Sun Guard.

 

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Hi Kitru,

 

I really like your idea here. If there was one thing I would like to see changed, though, it's this:

 

"...Echani focused on light weaponry and armor, relying more on agility rather than heavier weapons and brute force."

 

^ Taken from wookieepedia.

 

I believe a cunning based class would fit better with the overall theme of the class (society) and actually balance the disparity of medium strength and cunning armor gtn sales, leaving more reason to sell or make cunning based medium gear. The way I see it, cunning armor can be rare to find unless you are able to make it yourself or know someone who can.

 

Mull it over :)

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Mull it over :)

 

I thought pretty hard about what mainstat to give to the class. Originally, I thought about having them use Aim (at that point I was seeing them as using Techblades and Techstaves and the explanation would be that Aim has connotations of improved observational skills and would fit within a context of precision strikes and pressure point attacks), though I also considered Cunning along with Strength. I settled on Strength because, as you can readily tell, they're a melee class. I also felt that the aesthetic of Sentinel gear fit with the general theme of the Echani/Thyrsians moreso than the Smuggler/Agent gear did. Think of it this way: which stat makes the most sense as to making you punch and kick harder? Strength just fits the bill with the least thematic wrangling, in my opinion.

 

It's important to remember that mainstat is, honestly, a largely arbitrary decision. Knights and Warriors use Strength (and it improves their Force powers, which doesn't really make sense unless you realize it's a mechanical/thematic disconnect necessary for reasonable gameplay) because it's thematically appropriate for them to do so. Consulars and Inquisitors improve their melee attacks with Willpower (because honing your mind makes you swing your lightsaber harder?). Regardless of which mainstat is chosen, it's going to overvalue that mainstat compared to the others since, right now, they're all functionally equal (2 ACs on each side for each mainstat; the inclusion of this class and the one I'm working on now would mean that 4 ACs use 2 of the mainstats and the other mainstats are left with just the 2).

 

As to "balancing out GTN sales", it's important to remember that the primary reason why there are less Cunning gear sales isn't because of a natural preference for the game to use a specific mainstat. It's because there are just *fewer* Cunning users (in the sense of characters played rather than outright options). Arbitrarily choosing to assign a mainstat in order to balance out problems with the economy isn't really a wise course of action; making those Cunning classes more viable/enjoyable options so that people are more willing to play them *is*.

Edited by Kitru
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More thoughts to come as I continue to mull…

 

I like the idea of a surge buff, and the 5% value is an obvious balance mirror to the 5% crit buff (hey, multiplication commutes!). The one slight objection I have to it is the value in terms of a raw stat budget is somewhat lower than the value of a crit buff, since crit has a higher divisor in its DR curve. Assuming 2.0 stat scalars, the crit buff is by far the most valuable in terms of stat budget in that it equals the value of about 266 crit rating (much more if you actually have crit to begin with), the main stat buff is worth about 120-130 (similar with the endurance buff), while the bonus damage buff is the least valuable in terms of stat budgets in that it provides the same value as about 20-25 power. A 5% surge buff would only provide the equivalent value of 65 surge rating (significantly more if you have surge to begin with). That's more or less halfway between the main stat buff and the bonus damage buff, but far, far less than the crit buff. With that said, I still wouldn't change it since the surge % chosen is exactly at parity with the crit % buff, and that's more important than arbitrarily balancing against stat budget equivalence.

 

Regarding main stat, I would actually say that this class should have its own main stat, distinct from the other four. Main stat selection is a tricky thing, as it has obvious implications on gear drops. This is less of an issue now than it was when the game launched (class-agnostic tokens ftw), but class-specific drops do still exist (e.g. hazmat). It also creates an obvious imbalance in the crafting market and economy, which is a potentially larger issue.

 

I would say that the Echani main stat should be something like Discipline, with a secondary stat of Strength. Ideally, I would rather have two secondary stats (Strength and Willpower), but that would create combat balance issues. Nobody actually stacks secondary stat on their gear, so the choice of secondary stat really just has an effect on which datacrons players pick up. This doesn't seem like something worth caring about. We can add Willpower as a tertiary stat if we want, but not every class has a tertiary stat (troopers do, but consulars don't), so I don't think we *need* to be concerned about it.

 

More thoughts as they come. I still need to wrap my head around how to model the combat system to the point where I can say anything definite about resource generation/expenditure balance vs output.

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Regarding main stat, I would actually say that this class should have its own main stat, distinct from the other four. Main stat selection is a tricky thing, as it has obvious implications on gear drops. This is less of an issue now than it was when the game launched (class-agnostic tokens ftw), but class-specific drops do still exist (e.g. hazmat). It also creates an obvious imbalance in the crafting market and economy, which is a potentially larger issue.

 

I would say that the Echani main stat should be something like Discipline, with a secondary stat of Strength. Ideally, I would rather have two secondary stats (Strength and Willpower), but that would create combat balance issues. Nobody actually stacks secondary stat on their gear, so the choice of secondary stat really just has an effect on which datacrons players pick up. This doesn't seem like something worth caring about. We can add Willpower as a tertiary stat if we want, but not every class has a tertiary stat (troopers do, but consulars don't), so I don't think we *need* to be concerned about it.

 

Concerning the primary/secondary stat thing, it should be mentioned that, because they're a Tech class, their secondary stat is actually Cunning which actually ends up being your second option by sticking with Medium armor (man, it's like I actually thought of that :p). I think it also fits in thematically since they're renowned for being cunning tacticians and technologists (rather than having unbreakable wills, which would be indicated with Willpower).

 

I'm curious how you define tertiary stats though. Afaik, Troopers only get benefits from Aim and Cunning (Aim adds to both ranged and Tech attacks; Cunning just adds to Tech). Since Trooper attacks are either ranged or Tech, they get no benefit from Strength (which only improves melee) or Willpower (which only improves Force).

 

Concerning adding a new stat, my opinion is that it would end up complicating things too much. It would require creating *vastly* more gear than otherwise (my set up only requires some weapons to be made and a few armor sets; yours would require creating and stating up pretty much *everything* from 1-55), not to mention the datacrons, and attribution of said stat to other classes (as well as figuring out what the "baseline" function of it is, since it can't really be improving hp, melee, ranged, Force, or Tech by default without doubling up with a different stat). One of the advantages of this idea is that it creates a vastly different playstyle experience while filling in one of the extant class archetypes missing from TOR (the martial artist) and requiring a minimal amount of additional developmental effort. The inclusion of a new primary attribute would complicate things which operates contradictory to the idea of minimizing developmental effort for maximum developmental gain.

 

More thoughts as they come. I still need to wrap my head around how to model the combat system to the point where I can say anything definite about resource generation/expenditure balance vs output.

 

I actually set up the resource generation/consumption paradigm before the Alacrity change for the PTS was included so I haven't actually accounted for that (if it did get made, I figured that it would be hashed out in playtest). I'm pretty confident that it would hold true with the Alac changes since Breath regen would be increased by Alacrity and Intuition gain is fundamentally tied to your Breath (unlike Focus, where Focus gain is tied to flat CDs that are unaffected by Alacrity).

 

The balancing context was applied insofar as I designed the various specs with specific rotations or use paradigms in mind with the resource mechanisms design to achieve a balance between the generation and consumption of both resources over the duration (all of which are 20-30 seconds long). If people are curious, I can actually provide the intended attack string/rotations for each of the relevant specs for each of the classes, though I tried to keep them relatively obvious.

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I'm curious how you define tertiary stats though. Afaik, Troopers only get benefits from Aim and Cunning (Aim adds to both ranged and Tech attacks; Cunning just adds to Tech). Since Trooper attacks are either ranged or Tech, they get no benefit from Strength (which only improves melee) or Willpower (which only improves Force).

 

In some of the early work on figuring out game mechanics, there was a post on Sith Warrior which mentioned an increase in crit chance on specific abilities (e.g. Stockstrike) that was governed by a tertiary stat (in the case of troopers, Strength). This (obviously) doesn't appear in the character sheet. It is a small enough increase that most theory crafters ignore it.

 

I don't have a link on hand (I'll see if I can find it), and I never did verify the results myself. So right now, file tertiary stat under the sub-heading of "Tam's suspect memory of a random forum post (that he can't link)".

 

Concerning adding a new stat, my opinion is that it would end up complicating things too much. It would require creating *vastly* more gear than otherwise (my set up only requires some weapons to be made and a few armor sets; yours would require creating and stating up pretty much *everything* from 1-55), not to mention the datacrons, and attribution of said stat to other classes (as well as figuring out what the "baseline" function of it is, since it can't really be improving hp, melee, ranged, Force, or Tech by default without doubling up with a different stat). One of the advantages of this idea is that it creates a vastly different playstyle experience while filling in one of the extant class archetypes missing from TOR (the martial artist) and requiring a minimal amount of additional developmental effort. The inclusion of a new primary attribute would complicate things which operates contradictory to the idea of minimizing developmental effort for maximum developmental gain.

 

I agree with all of the above, I'm just curious as to how you would answer the concerns regarding crafting and economy. Unless the class population is negligible relative to the server population, I can't imagine this *not* creating economic balance issues. Loot contention is loot contention, and is always going to be an issue.

 

I actually set up the resource generation/consumption paradigm before the Alacrity change for the PTS was included so I haven't actually accounted for that (if it did get made, I figured that it would be hashed out in playtest). I'm pretty confident that it would hold true with the Alac changes since Breath regen would be increased by Alacrity and Intuition gain is fundamentally tied to your Breath (unlike Focus, where Focus gain is tied to flat CDs that are unaffected by Alacrity).

 

Intuitively, I agree. Alacrity should work just fine, since the limiting factor in the resource mechanic here is Breath, not Intuition. Intuition is really more of a fractional proc mechanic than it is a limiting resource.

 

The balancing context was applied insofar as I designed the various specs with specific rotations or use paradigms in mind with the resource mechanisms design to achieve a balance between the generation and consumption of both resources over the duration (all of which are 20-30 seconds long). If people are curious, I can actually provide the intended attack string/rotations for each of the relevant specs for each of the classes, though I tried to keep them relatively obvious.

 

I'd rather puzzle out the attack strings on my own. Aside from being more fun, it has the potential to reveal unanticipated possibilities.

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I agree with all of the above, I'm just curious as to how you would answer the concerns regarding crafting and economy. Unless the class population is negligible relative to the server population, I can't imagine this *not* creating economic balance issues. Loot contention is loot contention, and is always going to be an issue.

 

As I see it, economic balance concerns are going to occur no matter how you design an additional class (unless you explicitly add 4 new classes at once, one for each mainstat). Crafted Cunning gear is way harder to find and generally goes for worse prices because Smugg/Agent isn't played as much as Knight/Warrior. It could just as easily have gone the entire other way around (my general suspicion is that Smugg/Agent saw a steep drop off in play shortly after release when Scoundrel/Operative DPS was nerfed into oblivion; I recall at release that Sentinels weren't receiving as much play as predicted since their DPS was viewed as inferior so, at release, you'd have seen Cunning gear going for more than Strength). As I see it, the economy will reach equilibrium regardless of how you finagle with it, and the tweaks to REing coming in 2.0 (both making it harder and restricting access to top tier schematics) are going to go to some length to prevent the massive disparity between Cunning craftables and pretty much everything else.

 

Like I said, I'm not one for choosing a main stat based upon a belief in how the economy will react to it. The economy is a completely separate beast, as I see it, so I'd much rather design the class as a class and then see how the economy reacts to it (or, even better, fix the fundamental aspects of the economy that end up getting broken, like returning to the days when Ops dropped actual schematics in addition to providing the option to RE a specific piece of gear which would normalize the distribution of crafted items by a fair bit).

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Always love new classes and definitely a good attempt.

 

I would say though that a brief explanation on how you think the classes/specs would work would go to much greater lengths than the specific talents and everything (though given your intent I understand why you did it this way).

 

Personally while designing classes for games I'd rather go for the theme and the mechanics and perhaps some core, defining skills, than giving a complete run over. It's a better "sales pitch" too, as wall of texts are off putting (and, tbh, no matter your level of skills, it's basically impossible to balance stuff in a void like that so your numbers, which I'm certain you researched deeply, are still fairly meaningless)

 

Btw I hope you take all these comments as I intend them: constructive criticism.

 

Now, as for opinions... I didn't really read all the skills and talents descriptions, but the basic idea of two resources is nice. Personally I think the way to get out most of this kind of mechanic is making breath the normal resource as all classes get (ammo, force, energy), and keep intuition as a stacking self buff, kinda like centering and similar things BUT make it something you actually have to manage (and as this is going to be an additional class, we can make it more complex I think).

 

By that I mean: you can decide whether you use it to "fuel" skills (IE: they use intuition along with breath) or you keep it at certain thresholds that give you specific bonuses and perhaps unlock different skills.

In this way you can/have to make trade offs: Will I keep my intuition to the max so I get the bonuses? Will I use it to active skills x and y? Will I discharge it for a powerful buff?

 

Gives a lot of flexibility in what you can do. You could make skills react somewhat differently depending on intuition levels, and so on.

 

Just suggestions... One thing I have to say though: we already have 5 melee classes. Tanks kinda require to be meleeish so I understand, but at least one of the advanced classes should be ranged imho. Not sure about the specific skills, but there are "traditional" martial weapon fighters in the SW universe, so giving one of the ACs access to something like the Nightsisters bows would keep the "martial fighters" feel and get you a ranged AC.

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So, I did some preliminary mathing on the Water tree. I'm a little bit concerned with how the output is looking. Basically, I expressed all of the non-AoE, non-gap-closer abilities along with their damage coefficients and talent bonuses as a function to maximize under the constraints of cooldown, cast time, Breath and Intuition cost and GCD. Assuming I expressed everything appropriately, the result of maximizing this function should be the "standards per second" of damage doable by the tree under ideal circumstances and ideal rotation. The only major component that I *didn't* include here is the stacking "Ebb and Flow" proc, which is absolutely important but extremely difficult to model (still a work in progress). I further made a stochastic assumption w.r.t. True Strike (i.e. using it when statistically ideal from an average cost perspective, not on proc).

 

Here is the expression:

 

Maximize[1/a + 1.2/b + 1.2/c + 1.7/d + 1.17/e + 1.35/f + 1.7/g + 
 1.7/h + 0.3*1.7/d + 0.3*1.7/g + 0.3*1.7/h + 0.1*1.2/b + 
 0.3*0.3*1.2/b + 0.3*0.3/f, 
  d >= 3 + 9 &&                  (* True Strike cast + cd *)

 e >= 12 &&                    (* Warcry cd *)

 g >= 30 - (g/f) - (g/b) &&    (* Avalanche Strike cd *)

 h >= 30 - (h/f) - (h/b) &&    (* Vortex Spin cd *)

 a > 1.5 &&                    (* GCD *)
  b > 1.5 &&

 c > 1.5 &&
  f > 1.5 &&

  25/b + 30/e + 30/g <= 5 &&      (* Breath costs *)

 2/c + (4*((1 - 
          0.15)^(d * (3/a + 1/b + 1/c + 0.3/d + 1/e + 1/f + 1/g + 
            1/h))))/d + 2/f + 3/h <= 2/b + 1/e + 1/g &&     (* 
 Intuition costs *)

  1/a + 1/b + 1/c + 1/d + 1/e + 1/f + 1/g + 1/h <= 
  1/1.5,      (* Frequency bound (no more than one attack per GCD) *)

 {a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h}]

 

Please check my work. All of the variables represent inverse frequency of ability usage (e.g. you cannot use True Strike more frequently than once every 12 seconds, thus d >= 12). The variables are keyed according to the following:

 

  • a => quick combination
  • b => power strike
  • c => intuitive strike
  • d => true strike
  • e => warcry
  • f => rising fist
  • g => avalanche strike
  • h => vortex spin

 

When plugged into Mathematica, the result is the following:

 

{0.748216, {a -> 1.94201, b -> 2034.96, c -> 83.6962, d -> 1265.26, 
 e -> 12., f -> 262.53, g -> 29.8715, h -> 55.9048}}

 

The first number that is concerning here is the total damage output: just 0.75 standards per second *before* armor DR. With armor DR and assuming no armor debuff, we're down to just .49 standards per second. That seems extremely low. Second, these numbers imply an ideal rotation which is somewhat dull. Basically, you use the basic attack almost constantly. You never use Power Strike or True Strike (which is odd, given the proc), almost never use Rising Fist, and *very* rarely use Intuitive Strike or Vortex Spin (which is also odd, since it is the capstone ability for the tree).

 

Honestly, I think the problem here is that the basic attack is too powerful. If I halve the damage done by Quick Combination (basically, doubling the value of a "standard"), we get something that's much nicer looking:

 

{0.841902, {a -> 4.33731, b -> 5.16493, c -> 5697.89, d -> 12., 
 e -> 1409.33, f -> 9.07406, g -> 216.795, h -> 23.0094}}

 

This now gives us a damage output of 0.55 standards per second (after armor debuff), but remember the standard is now twice as valuable as it was before. Thus, we deal 1.1 * <basic attack damage> per second. This is still low relative to basic attacks for existing classes (e.g. Strike does around 1.1k damage, but a Sentinel in that kind of gear would do easily 2.1k DPS), but it's getting closer. Halving the value yet again brings us to something that looks a bit more reasonable:

 

{0.781141, {a -> 4.301, b -> 5.24354, c -> 2740.86, d -> 12., 
 e -> 316.909, f -> 9.19968, g -> 218.077, h -> 23.0877}}

 

Assuming the basic attack does 1.1k tooltip damage, that gives us an optimal DPS of around 2.23k, which is a little over-powered but not awful. More tuning is required here.

 

Reducing the damage dealt by Quick Combination also encourages a much more dynamic rotation, where True Strike is used on cooldown, Power Strike is used almost as frequently as Quick Combination, Rising Fist is used frequently, and Vortex Spin is used essentially on cooldown. This seems more in line with how the tree was designed to work.

 

The gigantic caveat here is that I'm not considering the value of the "Ebb and Flow" proc. As soon as I find a way to include this, I'll update the numbers and post.

Edited by KeyboardNinja
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KBN Wall of Numbers :p

 

Don't get me wrong, I love your work, but that's basically the reason why I dislike numbers so early in the design stage. They're INEVITABLY going to be wrong and they still don't represent the class. Imho the focus should be first on getting a nice design, with cool mechanics that make for fun and engaging combat. Once you get that down, you can start with numbers, otherwise any kind of overall design change is going to send you back to calculate everything again almost from scratch.

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Oh, and I found the reference to Tertiary Stat: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=63362 It's part of the base stats calculation. Still looking for the reference indicating it affects the crit chance on Stockstrike.

 

I may be wrong but I think it was just an early rumor due to Stockstrike being a melee skill in theory (as in, melee range). I remember reading *THAT* back then, but it was quickly debunked as being just false as stockstrike is a tech skill and not melee. I don't remember reading anything about confirmation of strength doing anything for troopers.

 

In particular, in the thread you cite, tertiary stats are just the "leftovers". The line

Tertiary Stat = 10 + Level * 0.8 i.e. Strength for the Trooper

I'm fairly sure just means that all the non primary/secondary stats increase at the same rate, up to 50 at lvl 50, as can be seen in the table just above that statement. I don't think it implies anything more than that.

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Personally while designing classes for games I'd rather go for the theme and the mechanics and perhaps some core, defining skills, than giving a complete run over. It's a better "sales pitch" too, as wall of texts are off putting (and, tbh, no matter your level of skills, it's basically impossible to balance stuff in a void like that so your numbers, which I'm certain you researched deeply, are still fairly meaningless)

 

Keep in mind that I don't think that the developers could just lift these numbers out of the post and put them in game to get something ready for release a week from now. As I see it, this is more "alpha" stage: it's not even ready for beta testing, imo. Hell, if you check out the talent trees that I put out, I don't think any of them are populated with the 36 talent points that are a functional *minimum* for a full talent tree and, iirc, fire is is only in the high-20s. Even then, for the listed numbers, the math I've done is *very* soft. I used rough approximations for most of it and used a much more intuitive approach to assigning damage numbers than I'm really comfortable with (the first round of my calcs was pretty much just assigning numbers that "seemed right" and then I determined what I expected the attack string to be to determine what the average DPS would be followed by revising those numbers to bring them in line with that I expect the proper DPS to be). It's not *supposed* to be a class that could be tacked on immediately. It's a starting point from which the class could be developed and further refined into a presentable form.

 

Essentially, to use a metaphor, the concept of an Echani class is a class "seed", this write-up is a class "sapling", and the full class is an outright class "tree".

 

Btw I hope you take all these comments as I intend them: constructive criticism.

 

The primary reason why I posted this is to get the reaction from other players about something I've been working on since last November. As the people that I interact with will tell you, I operate *much* better when I'm not just operating in a vacuum. Since most of what I'm doing has ended up going over the heads of both my friends and people I know in game (*design* is a vastly difference skill set than play or analysis so most of them are simply dumbfounded), this is both a manner to get my ideas out there while also getting feedback on them.

 

Now, as for opinions... I didn't really read all the skills and talents descriptions, but the basic idea of two resources is nice. Personally I think the way to get out most of this kind of mechanic is making breath the normal resource as all classes get (ammo, force, energy), and keep intuition as a stacking self buff, kinda like centering and similar things BUT make it something you actually have to manage (and as this is going to be an additional class, we can make it more complex I think).

 

When I first saw Centering, I thought that it was actually going to be consumed as a secondary resource and was more than a little let down when I found out that there are only 3 Centering consuming abilities and they all consume all 30 stacks at once. Centering is more of a tacked on extra than a fundamental aspect of the class.

 

In designing the dual resource system, I recognized that it would be more complex than any of the existing resource models, which is bound to happen when you tie 2 mechanically unique resources together, but I didn't want to make it so complex as to be unplayable. The basic set up I went with is that one of your resource is your "standard" resource (Breath, since it's pretty much the simplest resource setup I could imagine while still being a resource mechanism) and the other is your "better" resource (insofar as it's used to fuel your "stronger" attacks). As I developed the specs, this was mussed up a bit as I decided to focus more on the interaction of the two resources rather than elevating Intuition naturally above the Breath, but I'm actually happier with it this way.

 

It's important to mention that you *do* have to maintain and manage both resources. If you run out of Breath, you better hope you have the Intuition to buy you some time for your Breath to recharge. If you're out of Intuition, you're going to need Breath to generate it. I didn't want to make maintaining *either* of them a major chore since it would just end up with a majority of players annoyed and not having fun (like most Guardians were at release since there weren't a lot of guide for how to play a Guardian and most people wanted to just spam the hell out of their attacks).

 

By that I mean: you can decide whether you use it to "fuel" skills (IE: they use intuition along with breath) or you keep it at certain thresholds that give you specific bonuses and perhaps unlock different skills.

In this way you can/have to make trade offs: Will I keep my intuition to the max so I get the bonuses? Will I use it to active skills x and y? Will I discharge it for a powerful buff?

 

Gives a lot of flexibility in what you can do. You could make skills react somewhat differently depending on intuition levels, and so on.

 

While that does allow for some really interesting tactical and mechanical options, you can pretty much guarantee that it wouldn't really end up playing like that more than a month after release. Once theorycrafters have had their chance to math things out, you can pretty much guarantee that it would be proven that, for this spec, you want to max out and maintain your Intuition at all time, whereas, for this other one, it's not worth it to get over 6 Intuition, etc. At that point, it just becomes a question of creating arbitrary complexity purely to make it harder to theorycraft and, as a negative side effect, confuse the living bejeesus out of players that don't math and research for fun.

 

I do kind of like that idea however. I think I might coopt and tweak it for the other class I'm working on.

 

Just suggestions... One thing I have to say though: we already have 5 melee classes. Tanks kinda require to be meleeish so I understand, but at least one of the advanced classes should be ranged imho. Not sure about the specific skills, but there are "traditional" martial weapon fighters in the SW universe, so giving one of the ACs access to something like the Nightsisters bows would keep the "martial fighters" feel and get you a ranged AC.

 

The problem with this is coming up with a reason for the Echani and Thyrsians to use said weapons. They're an explicitly melee focused culture so it doesn't really make much sense for a second AC to be ranged capable and coming up with some obscure bit of minutia as a vague thematic construct to force the theme to adhere to an arbitrary mechanical desire rubs me the wrong way. If it were *necessary* to create a ranged option rather than a melee option, I could see it, but I just don't see it as being necessary: as far as most of the game is concerned, DPS is DPS.

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The only major component that I *didn't* include here is the stacking "Ebb and Flow" proc, which is absolutely important but extremely difficult to model (still a work in progress).

 

This is probably the biggest weakness I can see since Ebb and Flow are part of the fundamental design of the spec: it provides a 75% increase to the damage of the first attack of a Breath or Intuition resource consumption cycle (which, based on my design, should be your biggest hitter; i.e. Vortex or Avalanche Strike). Ignoring those contributions are going to have a *major* impact on the actual total damage dealt since those attacks, augmented in such a way, form the backbone of the rotation.

 

I further made a stochastic assumption w.r.t. True Strike (i.e. using it when statistically ideal from an average cost perspective, not on proc).

 

I actually planned for Water to take the 1 sec cast time reduction in the Spirit tree so that it's actually got a 2.0 sec cast time. The baseline stats on True Strike are pretty much rubbish; I think when I was doing the math for it, the damage was so bad that you would never want to touch it (akin to Shadow Strike and Project for Shadows).

 

Also, were you factoring in the differences in the relevant damage types? The stance proc is Internal damage, which is substantially more valuable than raw kinetic/energy damage. In addition, I'm not sure why you had Warcry in there. It actually does less damage for more Breath than Power Strike does without factoring in the talents that increase Power Strike crit damage and decrease its Breath cost. Warcry shouldn't even be used as part of the ST rotation for Water (it's a useful AoE attack though).

 

Honestly, I think the problem here is that the basic attack is too powerful.

 

I don't really think that's the problem. Quick combination is, explicitly, a basic attack and follows the formula for *all* basic attacks: no cost, no CD, 1.0 coefficient, weapon damage. It's a pretty good sign that, if you think the problem is that *basic attack*, then your model itself is flawed (as I said, I'm pretty sure your flaw is in the fact that you forgot to account for Ebb and Flow, which are a *major* part of the spec).

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