So far all we have ever seen in any shows is the first time construction of a lightsaber. Which in no way tells us anything about modding them or fine tuning them. No one has ever defined exactly what modding the crystal means. could be placing the crystal in the optimal position. could be modifying the shape. Since we don't know what it is how do you know it is discipline. And I really have to agree with Otter Jethro. Part of the game balance in this system isJedi need a lot of different skills and other XP sinks. So that while a Jedi can be amazing they are not as focused as other characters which allows other characters to compete. And you never addressed the flaw in your system. It makes fully modding an ilum crystal not really possible as you run in to the difficulty cap.

Besides my flavor reason

the Idea that the Jedi need yet another XP sink seems a bit much.

they already need more base skills then every other career on top of that to be effective they need at least two spec.(lightsaber/job) then there is the amount of XP needed to use the force powers and on top of that to use the force power effectively they need to get at least one or more additional force point from there trees so why would one less XP sink make them overpowered ?

to the last part I addressed that many post ago. as I said then I hear and agreed with what some poster had said on that and was going to change it to can be Modded once per Force rating.

Your concern is that "modifying the crystal doesn't feel like mechanics" is based on something I don't understand. That is the big reason everyone is focusing on your second concern. You never really explained why it doesn't feel that way. To me, the idea of modifying a crystal most likely is one of two things. It is the way it is positioned inside the hilt or the physical makeup of the crystal itself. The crystal would likely be scratched or sculpted to change the physical shape in a manner different than how it started. This process would require a tool kit (something clearly associated with the mechanics skill). I'm not saying these are the only possible ways but are the two that came to mind for me specifically. That is why your original statement that it didn't "feel" right doesn't make sense to me (and possibly others).

As for changing it to discipline, I think that is a poor idea. Discipline is already a skill that Force Users should be investing experience into. I don't think it is wise to change the skill used to accomplish a task to something the character already invests into significantly. One aspect I enjoy in an RPG is being forced to decide which way I want to improve my character specifically. Someone who wants to be a strong force user may need to delay the ability to fully modify a lightsaber to become more attuned with the force. Conversely someone can invest in mechanics and create a very strong lightsaber and become quite proficient at repairs and so forth. Having one skill cover so many aspects eliminates these sort of decisions because you just pick the Swiss Army knife skill.

The only canon example of lightsabers being make The Gathering shows that no tools are used in the creation of a Lightsaber.

on the next point Discipline with out the difficulty reduction to me at least seem just as balance as Mechanical with it.

For someone who spent the better part of this thread complaining that people didn't address the point, you sure did a good job and doing the same thing.

Please don't take the wrong way I'm just asking what point did I not address ?

You stated your view on how you see modding a crystal, I don't share your view and have already stated my view on it in multiple post so was not going to repeat it.

So I gave an example of why I have that view.

and then you stated that Mechanical skill was used as a balancing factor which I don't disagree with.

If the Mechanical was working so well for this they would not have had to add the cost reduction.

and that brings about my statement that Discipline with out the cost reduce is just as balanced.

was there something I missed ?

My post was entirely about not wanting a single skill to "rule them all." You said nothing about it at all, only that you are increasing the difficulty to compensate. That does not address my point at all as your change does exactly what I said I thought the problem was, moving things into a skill that is already a priority to lessen the burden of a skill you don't like.

I'm sorry I took that as you perception of the game that's why I was not going to argue it but here goes.

Most careers in the game beside the Jedi have "One skill to rule them all"

Ace-Piloting

Hired gun-range

Mechanic- Mechanical

etc.

Jedi have- lightsaber, mechanical, discipline, and a skill dependent on there career so I still don't see the problem with dropping one

When you consider how powerful a Jedi is in this game. Dropping one skill can have a VERY large impact on balance. That is 120XP they get to spend on something else. You can do a massive amount of stuff with 120 XP. And yet again you ignored one of the problems I stated. You make modding ilum crystals run into a wall. Which was part of the reason they did the your own lightsaber is 2 dice easier. When you do that Ilum crystals top out at 5 difficulty. Remove that and they top out at 7 difficulty which is 2 beyond what this system is intended to have happen.

So far all we have ever seen in any shows is the first time construction of a lightsaber. Which in no way tells us anything about modding them or fine tuning them. No one has ever defined exactly what modding the crystal means. could be placing the crystal in the optimal position. could be modifying the shape. Since we don't know what it is how do you know it is discipline. And I really have to agree with Otter Jethro. Part of the game balance in this system isJedi need a lot of different skills and other XP sinks. So that while a Jedi can be amazing they are not as focused as other characters which allows other characters to compete. And you never addressed the flaw in your system. It makes fully modding an ilum crystal not really possible as you run in to the difficulty cap.

Besides my flavor reason

the Idea that the Jedi need yet another XP sink seems a bit much.

they already need more base skills then every other career on top of that to be effective they need at least two spec.(lightsaber/job) then there is the amount of XP needed to use the force powers and on top of that to use the force power effectively they need to get at least one or more additional force point from there trees so why would one less XP sink make them overpowered ?

to the last part I addressed that many post ago. as I said then I hear and agreed with what some poster had said on that and was going to change it to can be Modded once per Force rating.

I take it you have never played in D20 star wars or WEG star wars? Jedi were a serious problem. This is the first system where being a Jedi is not an I win button. That is a good thing. It means the other players actually matter.

So far all we have ever seen in any shows is the first time construction of a lightsaber. Which in no way tells us anything about modding them or fine tuning them. No one has ever defined exactly what modding the crystal means. could be placing the crystal in the optimal position. could be modifying the shape. Since we don't know what it is how do you know it is discipline. And I really have to agree with Otter Jethro. Part of the game balance in this system isJedi need a lot of different skills and other XP sinks. So that while a Jedi can be amazing they are not as focused as other characters which allows other characters to compete. And you never addressed the flaw in your system. It makes fully modding an ilum crystal not really possible as you run in to the difficulty cap.

Besides my flavor reason

the Idea that the Jedi need yet another XP sink seems a bit much.

they already need more base skills then every other career on top of that to be effective they need at least two spec.(lightsaber/job) then there is the amount of XP needed to use the force powers and on top of that to use the force power effectively they need to get at least one or more additional force point from there trees so why would one less XP sink make them overpowered ?

to the last part I addressed that many post ago. as I said then I hear and agreed with what some poster had said on that and was going to change it to can be Modded once per Force rating.

I take it you have never played in D20 star wars or WEG star wars? Jedi were a serious problem. This is the first system where being a Jedi is not an I win button. That is a good thing. It means the other players actually matter.

yes I have played and own D20 and WEG D6 star wars I also own Saga star wars(yes it is different from D20)

and yes they where over powering in the first two, not so much saga if you did not allow all the splat books.

but there is a point when you can go to far in the other direction also.

other XP sinks and disadds for the Jedi I forgot

one less career skill

the fact only they can mod there weapon where all other careers can hire someone to do it for them.

so IMHO one less XP sink is not going to break the career.

the other thing is they are the only career that needs a skill that is not a career or spec skill for all there careers/specs

only 3 out of the 21 have it.

Saga's issue was that it had one skill to rule them all. Use the Force. Every player took Skill Emphasis for it. Then proceeded to take any talent that allowed you to substitute Use the Force for some other skill. Also all the Force abilities depended on it. By reducing the useful spread of skills you run the risk of returning to such a format, something FFG has designed the game not to do. I'm sure they thought along these lines you are considering at this point, but felt putting too much emphasis into too few skills may make things too easy for the characters. Thus they spread it around more. They have consciously designed Force users to have to spread their XP around as a balancing factor. That's not to say that a change like this will unbalance everything, but care must be taken when traveling this road.