Tables Showing Relative Abilities Of Starting Templates And Existing Characters
First, the table that shows what the templates start at, and what it all means.
[code]Template A B C D E F
Adventurer/Fallen 4 2 3 3 6 3
Scholar/Cultist 2 0 0 5 4 2
Swordsman/Blackguard 6 0 4 1 2 3
Athlete/Rogue 3 3 3 2 4 2
Ronin/Executor 5 2 3 2 6 3
Wanderer/Heretic 2 0 1 4 5 2
Freelancer/Corsair 6 1 4 0 2 3
Vigilante/Brigand 3 4 3 1 4 2
Acolyte 1 0 0 8 1 1
Revenant 4 0 2 7 4 2
Orphan 1 0 1 8 1 1
Venerable Master 5 0 1 6 4 3
Retired Champion 5 1 2 6 3 3
Solitaire 6 0 1 5 4 3
A= Sabre skill
B= Gun combat
C= Close Combat
D= Force skill
E= General skills
F= Duelling prowess
[/code]
Each skill is out of ten. I’ll try and discourage people racing for ten because that is Council Member level.
Duel is the odd skill out, as it is calibrated purely against other Jedi, unlike the other skills, which are calibrated against normal people. It is out of 6 (which is Dooku/Yoda level). It is very hard to increase, but even a low score indicates a great deal of skill.
The Duelling score is a rough aggregate of several factors. For example, a Master’s skill in Duelling is actually 4, but I have showed it as 3 here in order to take into account the age factor. To be more literal, a Master would fight power blows at a rating of 2, agile blows at 3, and classical swordplay moves at 4. Similar fuzzy issues surround a number of templates (Athlete, Revenant, Acolyte, and so on), so only use that rating as a guide, and try to bear in mind what the template actually is.
Force is also a lazy aggregate. It is a rough idea of how powerful a person is with the Force having combined their natural talent and acquired skill. Masters are far more skilled, but less outright powerful, than the Force-based templates. But even those force-based templates are very different. The Acolyte is all about superb instincts and scary sensitivity. The Revenant is all about outright rage used in the destruction of others. The Orphan is about sheer power, but very imprecise and uncontrolled.
A ‘zero’ Force score means you know the basics (push/pull, sensing, jumping, speed) and enough to make you good in battle, but not enough for anything more. A zero in anything else means you simply cannot do it.
Whatever you do, do not add the numbers together and decide the one with the most points is best. This does not work! There are two reasons- first of all, those who specialise in areas tend to get less points- but being specialised is worth more than having a general spread. The Adventurer gets the most points simply because he does not specialise. Secondly, not all the columns are of equal worth. Sabre skill and Force are worth a lot more than non-sabre combat and skills. All in all, these numbers are derived from the system we use here at home, and the templates in this system have been designed not on the basis of mathematical balancing, but on the basis of practical playtesting to create the best balance.
An Acolyte can actually reach a force level of 12 rather than 10. So would an Orphan if properly trained, which is unlikely.
Some improvements you make post-story are worth more than others, depending on the value of the skill. Force increases more slowly than skills, for example. Combat improvements get distributed according to your template.
And in the end, there are other factors that this table does not cover- like a Master’s physical weakness when injured, and an Athlete’s advantage in acrobatics. So this table is a guide, not the definitive be all and end all of the templates.