Let me start by saying I love Saska but she has a problem: Saska is under powered. She needs a boost. Get core problem centers around her device tokens which have 3 problems:

* quantity

* distribution

* usefulness

* Lack of quantity means there are never enough tokens for the cumulative effects to be useful.

* difficulty of distribution makes it even harder to get them to heroes

* even then, the tokens lack usefulness

At the simplest analysis, Saska is transferring strain from other heroes to herself (since device tokens can always be used for a surge to recover strain). This is lame. Like really really lame. As a support character her tokens need to be more useful, as by herself she contributes little more than an extra body. Additionally, because her abilities center around the tokens, which she can give to others, she becomes an inferior version other heroes, since they can can use her tokens just as well as her, essentially gaining all her strengths plus their own, while not having her disadvantage of having to take strain to gain the token in the first place. Also problematic is that she has to pay a cost for using the tokens just like everyone else. All these issues should be addressed.

So what role do we want for her? It looks like the goal for her was to be able to provide a variety of abilities that suit different situations. Use them when you need them for what you need. Power converter for weapon flexibility (need range: Swap in a blue. Need damage - swap in a red; need surge, swap in a yellow). Adrenaline injector for movement. Unstable device for that one last damage you need to get through, or free damage on a group. Etc.

I'm going to propose some changes to Saska that keep the theme and idea while strengthening her abilities.

One idea I'm showing here is the idea that each ability, in addition to the device token ability, gives her a lesser version of the ability of the device tokens or an improved version of what other characters get. This is based on what can be seen in the toolbox skill (which is a pretty good skill all around, you should always get it - remember it can work for attribute checks you need to pass in order to use your abilities). By doing this it makes her a bit stronger and more useful, more than just a token generator - avoiding the sameness tendency mentioned earlier.

First we start with her base ability and address both the quantity and distribution problems:

* Battle Technician usable twice per activation, additionally, you can "give" a device token you have claimed to another adjacent friendly figure (note only Saska can do this, because her devices are freaky and scare people too much to go passing them around, and also balance). With this fix she can generate the tokens faster and then hand then out as she gets a chance later on. Admittedly the second part may be too much, or simply not useful. Not sure.

* Change practical solutions to"While attacking" instead of when you declare an attack.

As for her class cards:

* Unstable device. Change it so you only take damage if you deal no damage to your opponent. Maybe also weaken damaged enemies. Saska rolls a green die when using unstable devices.

* Energy shield. While defending, if Saska has device token , if you do not roll a block or evade, apply +1 block or +1 evade to your roll.

* Structural Weakness. Seems fine? I guess. Her only skill that applies only to her and it's usefulness is limited. Maybe something to just exhaust the card to deal 1 damage + weaken to droids and vehicles.

* Gadgeteer. I can't decide if it should give you two device tokens whenever you use battle technician, or exhaust to gain one free use of battle technician without paying the stress that doesn't count against your per turn limit (ie, one free token per round, even out of activation). As a bonus I'm thinking either she can equip one more accessory, but those are rarely used it seems. Maybe also give a 50 credit reduction on future modifications and accessories? Another option: for each modification on your weapon, your attack gains one of: 1 accuracy/reach, 1 pierce, weaken; each may be selected once per attack. But...I don't know it may not need the extra boost. Extra device tokens for free may be useful enough to not need more buffs. Maybe even getting like 10 credits at the end of the mission for each unused device token. Really not sure on this one.

* Power converter. The easy one is to remove the strain cost. I think also allowing a reroll when using practical solutions would also increase the usefulness of the tokens. Reroll effects are not super common for the rebels so providing that effect to the whole team would be great so long as they had some device tokens. For Saska, I'm thinking "if your attack deals no damage, you may choose to reroll all your attack dice (even those already rerolled). Once per round." Or simply reroll one attack die.

* Remote distribution is fine as is.

* Adrenaline injector. I think this really obvious: remove the move action requirement. Just straight up: discard a token and take a strain to gain two movement points and get focused. Pretty great really. Maybe buff Saska by giving her...something? Extra use of battle tech while focused? Extra movement point when using adrenaline injector? Dunno.

Those are my thoughts as of right now. I would really like some input as I know some of them aren't very good, and I am hoping to implement some buffs in my current campaign (already doing the rewording of practical solutions). These are kind of being thrown against the wall to see what sticks.

What are your suggestions?

Both Rebel characters from the Twin Shadows were poorly designed in my opinion. FFG generally doesn't redo characters/cards or anything of the like to be honest. The fact that they hand out reprinted (errata included) skirmish deployment cards at tournaments is the most progressive action I've seen them take with any of their games.

Agreed, but the beauty of campaign is that you can house rule stuff to make sure all options are fun. :-)

I have to disagree. I ran a Fenn, Biv, Saska mini-campaign and did extremely well. Sasha doesn't just transfer strain. If using a surge to remove a strain is the only thing you get out of her ability, you've missed the point. Her ability also does not require an action to perform, which is very noteworthy. She has excellent speed, and her starting weapon is not too shabby compared to others. The ability to add a strain or a defend when needed is very helpful. Bit's double attack is very powerful, and although people complain about his lack of surge options, the bayonet makes him very formidable. In my campaign Fenn was the weak link, which seems incredibly strange to me. Not so strange when you consider my wife was running Subversive Tactics and essentially stun locked Fenn as early and often as possible.

Saska is all about making the few Actions the heroes have a success (especially Missions that need Skill Tests). I think she doesn't feel powerful, but she mitigates Luck, which means you can plan for sure with success instead of beeing screwed by losing one action on a failed attribute test. Considering that beeing able to really know your surge Ability will work means you can plan with that Cleave 2 Ability.

And while Gideon is the absolute support powerhouse, he's not for everyone. There is a very good chance that other players will play him for you if you're not a bit of an alpha gamer. Saska gives her support without needing an action, so you can play her like a regular hero.

Also, Saska is able to fill any role thats missing in a group. I think she is one of the few if not the only character that can chose freely in the campaign which weapon she wants and shopping just is great fun with her. With Gadgeteer, you can give her some broken combinations, putting out good damage and still supporting other characters.

I disagree as well.

I think Saska is awesome in fact I think she is really close to being in the must have column for any group.

Why is that?

First with her Device Tokens out of the gate you can use them to help reroll interacts. Which is nice. But for only 1 XP you can get Tool kit which makes it so that anyone with a device token will automatically get a surge when interacting with something. This means several different things it means you have activation conservation which HUGE in this game and it also makes it that you can send anyone to interact with the object. Need a 1 interact and it is a focus? the closest Hero is Garrkhan no worries he has a device token send him over no worries. And in some of the missions where you do not know what you will be interacting with until you get there like in New Threat, Incoming etc just making this ability Awesome.

Then if you are on a mission that does not have interactions for 3 XP you can take power converter which will allow you to discard the token for a Strain then replace any dice with any dice .... that is Awesome. Fenn is up close he does not need that blue and green that has little damage change the blue out for the red dice and you have an automatic surge which if you do not use on the attack you will get back the strain you spent for the dice change which is great.

Or for 4 XP you can go with Adrenaline Injector. Now movement in this game is big and so is being focused. I think there are 4 characters that can get focused. Gaarkhan, the Media Droid, Mak, and Diala. And let me tell you rolling that extra dice is big. You get extra damage, range, and more then likely a surge renewal. You do not have enough movement points to get a shot off unless you take the 2 extra strain move... Well now no worries you take 1 strain get the 2 extra movement points so you can get the shot AND get Focused to do huge damage on the target which great.

So what about getting people these device tokens? As stated before she can hand them out without the action AND she has speed 5 one of the fastest in the game. So she can move hand out a device token and then take a shot which is nice....OR if she has Gadgeteer she can hand out 2 on her way by people. Heck add remote distribution to that and she can just throw 2 of them at other people then shoot twice if she can. WOOT.

And if complete her side quest then when somebody uses their device token she gets one for free. Meaning you can get a device token every turn for free. Nice.

What about doing damage herself. It is true that she might not be able to pump out as much damage as say Jyn who can take multiple shots because of her ability and she has some abilities to help increase her damage and give her movement which is nice. But Jyn is only a pure damage dealer and does not bring anything else to the table so she better lots of damage.

But Saska with Gadgeteer gets an extra upgrade slot to her weapon. This means she can put an upgrade on say the T-21 a tier 2 card. So say you put plasma cell on there, you can now get pierce 3.. meaning all the damage you do goes to the target which means with the worst rolls for you and a 3 block from the other player you will at least do 1 damage and a stun. If you add Power Converter well then you are talking a minimum 2 damage and a stun. Now that might sound horrible but If you gave another hero the same gun they can't put the plasma cell on it so the would end up doing no damage. But what is the max that you could do? 6 damage and a stun if you do not need the range and the other play rolls a 3 block, that is pretty nice. Again you can add Power converter and bump that even higher to about 7 damage or so. And that is with a tier 2 weapon and a tier 2 upgrade. This also allows you to put an upgrade on the DXR-6. A DXR-6 with a tactical display... just Wow min damage output of 2 with pierce 2 or 4 damage if you do use the pierce or up to 6 damage and pierce 2 or 8 damage.. range 6 ... super nice. Or if you wanted to go NUTS you could use the Pulse Cannon and put on the the Tactical Display and the Plasma Cell.... Meaning a min damage of 4ish depending on pierce etc all the way up to 8 damage with pierces in there too. Then you can add Power Converter for a red dice or Adrenaline Injector for the focus and just wow.

Saska is very versatile She can be used to help move the objective forward with guaranteed interactions. Or she can buff up other peoples damage with power converter, or help increase their movement and damage with Adrenaline Injector. And

with Gadgeteer it opens up a ton of possibilities as far as weapons and attachments to those weapons to compete with with some of the pure damage dealers like Jyn, Fenn, Mak, or Loku.

For these reasons I think Saska is one of the best Heros in the game.

In fact I have the other problem of what upgrades to you take with her? You are guaranteed to get 10 XP and a max of about 14 I think so what do you get with that? there are so many choices. Where you have some hero's where it is clear cut like Gideon.. Masterstroke, Combat movement, called shot and then depending on XP fill in with other abilities.

Heh, so gets where I reveal I'm just concern trolling to get all the other Saska fans to show themselves :-)

But seriously, every post that mentions her talks about how limited she is (unless you need lots of attribute tests), and yeah, most of what you guys have been saying is true, and I agree with it. (T21 + plasma + power converter is pretty amazing, no lie.) That said, for the midst party if it weren't for twin shadows missions being tailor made for her, I'm not sure she's the equal of other heroes. Have you guys played her during a standard campaign? I find myself mostly playing mini-campaigns due to limited time.

I've had very positive experiences with her in standard campaigns. She doesn't have the "oomph" factor that really overtly impressive characters have. What she does do well, however, is nicely increase the entire team's efficiency. She's fairly unique among heroes in that her most useful skill, Tool Kit, is only 1xp. Being able to guarantee successes at skill checks for even your most inept characters can easily save you turns, and, by extension, entire missions. Her combat abilities, with the uber-buffed weapons described above, totally hold up. And she's very fast, and also fairly tough. It's also important to not overlook the devices' surge benefit in the early game if used properly. A device on early game Verena means that her starting knife becomes surprisingly lethal. Late game, guaranteed surges on the DXR-6 are also a wonderful thing.

A player taking Saska isn't going to become the rockstar of the team, but I still feel like she's a very solid character with no serious weaknesses who can fairly passively make a profound difference on the campaign.