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KOTOR Build: The Sabermaster

Tags: #Albino KOTOR 
  • Member
    July 17, 2015

    UPDATE: Check out this build’s Build Spotlight! EDIT: I'm having trouble finding the proper link to this on the new site; if anyone finds it, then please send it to me.

    This is my go-to build in Knights of the Old Republic, so I figured that it would be quite fitting to make it the first build that I post in the group. In KOTOR, I find that the best defense is a good offense, and the best offense is hitting as hard as you can with a lightsaber. This build is the embodiment of this philosophy. Throughout the entire playthrough you’ll be hitting like a truck while maintaining a solid defense. Now then, I am pleased to announce the site’s first ever KOTOR build…

    The Sabermaster

    The basic battle plan for the Sabermaster is actually quite simple. Have Jolee disable the enemies with either Fear/Horror/Insanity (whatever you have available) or Stun/Disable/Destroy Droid (if up against droids) and then you and Juhani can tear them up with Power Attacks enhanced with Knight/Master Speed while Jolee follows up with blasts of Force Lightning. The details of the build are as follows:

    Class: Soldier -> Guardian. Being a melee fighter, this build relies on feats more than force powers so you’ll want to go with the two physical classes. Once you hit level 7, hold off on any further leveling until you become a Guardian. This will maximize the number of feats you’ll get while also allowing for a decent number of force powers.

    Alignment: Light Side. Most of the dark side force powers are offensive in nature, which doesn’t mesh well with the Sabermaster’s poor force abilities. On the other hand, the light side offers some nice buffing powers that this build could really use.

    Skills: As a Soldier, keep saving all your skill points until you become a Guardian, which unlocks Persuade as a class skill. At that point, you can put them all in there.

    Teammates: Jolee and Juhani. With Jolee, prioritize getting the Fear, Heal, Destroy Droid, and Force Lightning lines of force powers (in that order). For attribute points, put the first one you get into Charisma and the rest into Wisdom. You can do whatever you want for feats, but I recommend defensive ones. As for Juhani, simply develop her in the same manner as the player character. If you want more details on how to develop these party members, this guide has good builds for both of them.

    Attributes

    STR:18   DEX:8   CON:10   INT:8   WIS:14   CHA:14

    That’s what you’ll want your starting stats to look like. Put whatever attribute points you get on levelups into Strength. Being one of the factors that determine your damage output, you’ll want to boost it as high as you can. Dexterity isn’t particularly useful for this build; you’ll already be getting defense bonuses from things like your equipment and Jedi Sense, not to mention that you’ll be primarily relying on your large health pool to survive anyway. Speaking of which, since the Soldier/Guardian combo gets the most health out of any class combo in the game, you won’t need to put much into Constitution. With the exception of Persuade, skills are more or less useless to the Sabermaster, so you don't need to bother with Intelligence. Finally, you’ll want to invest some into Wisdom and Charisma so you can have a somewhat decent pool of force points as well as a nice bonus to Persuade.

    Feats

    Listed in order of priority. All of them should be maxed out unless indicated otherwise.

    Two-Weapon Fighting: This is a weird one. Ordinarily, you’d want this ASAP since you’ll be using double-bladed weapons, however, due to a glitch, double-bladed weapons don’t suffer an attack penalty at all, making this feat useless for this build. However, it’s my understanding that this was patched on PC, so if you play on PC, pick this up. If not, don’t bother with it.

    Power Attack: In the early going, you may not want to use this due to the attack penalty. By the time you become a Guardian though, you’ll want to use in lieu of your regular attack, aside from whenever you want to Force Jump. Important to note is that the damage bonus from this applies to each hit of your attack. So if you’re using a double-bladed weapon and hit twice, each of those hits will have the boost from Power Attack.

    Weapon Focus/Specialization – Lightsaber: More attack and damage for your weapon of choice? Yes please!

    Jedi Defense: It’s great being able reflect blaster bolts back where they came from. Offense and defense at the same time.

    Toughness: A great way to augment the already impressive health pool of a Soldier/Guardian.

    Implants: There’s a couple of nice level 3 implants come lategame, so you’ll want to max this out eventually. That being said, if you’re on PC and thus taking Two-Weapon Fighting, you won’t have the feats to reach level 3 implants, so skip out on this one.

    Conditioning: A boost to your saving throws is always nice. Note that while you’ll have the feats to max out all the other listed feats, that’ll only leave you enough to reach Improved Conditioning here.

    Force Powers

    Listed in order of priority. All of them should be maxed out unless indicated otherwise.

    Cure/Heal: Personally, I have all my light side characters pick this up ASAP, as it’s the most convenient way to heal.

    Force Speed: Burst of Speed isn’t terribly useful (aside from getting around faster), but the extra hit(s) from Knight/Master Speed make it the most OP force power in the entire game.

    Energy Resistance: This is a weird one. Judging by its name, you’d think it would provide resistance against energy-based attacks, but according to its description, it doesn’t. However, if you actually use it, you’ll see that it does, thus making it a very useful power.

    Force Valor: Hard to go wrong with a boost to all of the party’s attributes.

    Force Armor: A little extra defense is always nice.

    *Minor Spoilers* Any Offensive Power: By level 19, you should have all the powers listed above maxed out, leaving you with one left to choose. Since the final boss can drain the life out of the prisoners in the room to fully heal himself, I recommend going with an offensive force power that can destroy the cells containing them before he can do so. You can go with Drain Life to steal his own tactic, but if you don’t want to grab any dark side powers, then Throw Lightsaber is your only other option. *End Spoilers*

    Equipment

    Weapon: By endgame, you’ll want to use a Double-Bladed Lightsaber with the Upari and Solari Crystals. Until you get your hands on them, go with whatever damage-boosting crystals you find. Also, the Echani Ritual Brand is an ideal earlygame weapon until you can use a lightsaber.

    Head: Not a whole lot of useful headgear for this guy. If you’re on PC, go with the Circlet of Saresh. Otherwise, go with whatever you find that gives immunity to mind-affecting powers and boosts to saving throws. In that regard, the best piece of headgear is the Stabilizer Mask.

    Body: As a Soldier, go with whatever armor you find that provides the best defense.  The same applies as a Guardian; just replace “armor” with “robes”. By endgame you should be using the Star Forge Robes.

    Implant: Initially, just go with whatever you can find that has a useful bonus. By endgame though you’ll want to be using the Cardio Power System. Combined with Toughness and your natural Soldier/Guardian health pool, you’ll be tough as nails.

    Belt: For most of the game you can just stick with using either save-boosting belts or the Power Belt. Eventually though you’ll want to pick up the CNS Strength Enhancer.

    Hands: Go with whatever gloves you find that give the highest strength boost. By endgame this will be the Dominator Gauntlets.

    Click Here For More Builds!

  • July 17, 2015

    Nice Work Albino, this is a good first build to have and the character itself is a solid build.

    Presentation wise I doubt it'd be all that different from a Skyrim Build, throw in a couple of pictures to divide the text, add in some Cooltext or other banners if you want to. You've included all the necessary information in the build and it's definitely playable, I would include at least a quick rundown of what skills to recommend (Demolition is a class skill for Soldier/Guardians isn't it, you can't go wrong with that.) I've had a quick look but I can't find any kind of Character Builder to make it easy to display all that information but there might be one out there. 

    For now what I'm going to do is feature every build that's posted for 24 hours, to promote the build and the group. Thanks for posting the build and congratulations on the first post of the Group. 

    EDIT: This looks like a fairly useful guide for anyone who wants to play KOTOR but hasn't before. 

  • Member
    July 17, 2015

    Thanks DB! I did include a small skills section (above teammates but below alignment), but there really isn't much to say about it for this build aside from "Save your skill points until you become a Guardian and then put them all into Persuade."

    Thanks for the feature; the extra attention is nice. :) And yeah, this would actually work well for a first-time player's KOTOR build.

  • July 17, 2015

    Forgot to feature it temporarily...But yes I do see the skills section now, and yeah Persuade is pretty much all you need I guess for this character, even then need is a tad off, it's the most useful at least.

    I hope to see more of those builds you talked about and more from others as well

  • Member
    July 17, 2015

    I have never played kotor but kudos for the first build in the group!

  • Member
    July 17, 2015

    Thanks!

  • Member
    July 18, 2015
    Awesome work Albino, as always, inspires me to make my own cone I can fire the two up, on PC, IPad, or Xbox.
  • Member
    July 18, 2015

    Thanks!

  • July 18, 2015

    I think everyone played a dual wielding power attack soldier/guardian at some point.  Interesting you were able to sneak implants into there without running out of feats, makes me want to play a scout again.

  • Member
    July 18, 2015

    Yeah, Soldier/Guardian gives you plenty of feats to work with, so it's easy enough to get your essential feats while picking up stuff like Implants.