Hi I was wondering if you guys can give me some feedback on this custom Universal Spec I finally got around to making. Any game mechanics suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for any help.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ey3029e7yryxkhv/TKM specialization.pdf?dl=0

Note: I am putting this in my campaign regardless so I am actually just after help with the mechanical portion of the spec. Thank you.

1 hour ago, Archlyte said:

Hi I was wondering if you guys can give me some feedback on this custom Universal Spec I finally got around to making. Any game mechanics suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks for any help.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ey3029e7yryxkhv/TKM specialization.pdf?dl=0

Just a note: Center of Being only works while using a lightsaber

Otherwise: Too focused, too powerful.

Blurred Movements x2

What does the 2nd rank do?

Also- the text for Lightning Reflexes reads the same as Blurred Movements.

I can't really see Meditation, as a maneuver in structured time...

Speed of the Seven Instincts just plays into what in a different thread you're complaining about: focussed characters who need an XP cap. Agility is already a favoured stat, required for Ranged, Gunnery, Piloting, etc. This just saves people from having to buy into Cool and Vigilance...that's two whole skill trees no longer required.

In general I've become leery of specs that try to embody a whole concept. There isn't a whole spec devoted to the various lightsaber forms either, there's really only a single talent embedded among a bunch of other stuff. You can't really make a decent Bounty Hunter by grabbing one spec, you need parts of several, and if you're Boba you probably need a bit of Merc Captain too.

3 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

Just a note: Center of Being only works while using a lightsaber

Otherwise: Too focused, too powerful.

Thanks for the input Happy. I loved CoB too much from my SWG days to exclude it from the TK so I just used it in the form they had. My idea was to cool the need to have jedi in the same way they did back in the old game so I needed the class to be formidable.

2 hours ago, Edgehawk said:

Blurred Movements x2

What does the 2nd rank do?

Also- the text for Lightning Reflexes reads the same as Blurred Movements.

I can't really see Meditation, as a maneuver in structured time...

Hey thanks Edgehawk. I haven't done the full descriptions yet so I haven't detailed which are ranked and which aren't but I will take this into account. I'll revisit meditation too to se if I can do something else with it.

2 hours ago, whafrog said:

Speed of the Seven Instincts just plays into what in a different thread you're complaining about: focussed characters who need an XP cap. Agility is already a favoured stat, required for Ranged, Gunnery, Piloting, etc. This just saves people from having to buy into Cool and Vigilance...that's two whole skill trees no longer required.

In general I've become leery of specs that try to embody a whole concept. There isn't a whole spec devoted to the various lightsaber forms either, there's really only a single talent embedded among a bunch of other stuff. You can't really make a decent Bounty Hunter by grabbing one spec, you need parts of several, and if you're Boba you probably need a bit of Merc Captain too.

Thanks for the feedback WF, I will think about a different way to do that but my thought was that the character should have some benefit from the description of the art being very fast.

In that case, perhaps they can spend Strain to get a free Maneuver before combat begins, regardless of initiative order...?

10 minutes ago, whafrog said:

In that case, perhaps they can spend Strain to get a free Maneuver before combat begins, regardless of initiative order...?

Oh I like that. Yeah I'll go with that instead thank you.

Also I just noticed a cut and paste error in the text of two boxes

3 hours ago, Edgehawk said:

Blurred Movements x2

What does the 2nd rank do?

Also- the text for Lightning Reflexes reads the same as Blurred Movements.

I can't really see Meditation, as a maneuver in structured time...

Yeah the Blurred movements wasn't the right description, it's like improved parry but for 25 points and needs only 2 Threat to trigger.

For the meditation Maneuver do you mean you cannot see the character being able to use a maneuver to settle themselves and focus because its a combat situation?

6 hours ago, Archlyte said:

For the meditation Maneuver do you mean you cannot see the character being able to use a maneuver to settle themselves and focus because its a combat situation?      

I think I just take issue with calling it meditation. I don't think it's over-powered, or inappropriate, but I personally can't see "meditating" in the midst of a combat situation.

I also considered the Agility/ initiative issue, but ultimately.. if speed is this spec's thing, there are other talents and powers that can also influence it.

4 hours ago, Edgehawk said:

I think I just take issue with calling it meditation. I don't think it's over-powered, or inappropriate, but I personally can't see "meditating" in the midst of a combat situation.

I also considered the Agility/ initiative issue, but ultimately.. if speed is this spec's thing, there are other talents and powers that can also influence it.

Hmm ok maybe I need to make that one out of combat. I'll put the revised one up once I have made the changes. Thank you so much for your input

I look at this and think it is too overpowered, in general. There just seems to be all "good" paths. Most specs make you buy a lesser desired talent, or one that doesn't stack with other things in the tree.

Also, rather than meditation, why not use the "Mind over Matter" from the martial artist? Spend destiny, recover strain = willpower.

Maybe call it Mental Focus - the way I see it is where the character disengages and takes breath before moving back into the fray

4 hours ago, Edgookin said:

I look at this and think it is too overpowered, in general. There just seems to be all "good" paths. Most specs make you buy a lesser desired talent, or one that doesn't stack with other things in the tree.

Also, rather than meditation, why not use the "Mind over Matter" from the martial artist? Spend destiny, recover strain = willpower.

Is that just for the purpose of being an XP sink? If so I could actually raise the cost of this stuff as a solution. I followed the template but maybe I shouldn't have. Meditation was form the old Teras Kasi from a game I liked so I wanted to use it for feel, but your point is well taken. Thanks for feedback Ed

1 hour ago, Archlyte said:

Is that just for the purpose of being an XP sink?

I don't know why they do that, maybe just to enforce the breadth of a concept. One of the reasons I prefer the Genesys method.

5 minutes ago, whafrog said:

I don't know why they do that, maybe just to enforce the breadth of a concept. One of the reasons I prefer the Genesys method.

Hmm, yeah because if it's just t make you spend more XP before you get to something good then I can just expand that amounts needed. That would also justify some of the capability of the spec, which I have toned down a bit.

If it's actually to get the characters to have some of those other abilities regardless of whether or not they are wanted/called for then I don't think it's necessary that I follow their model. I recently had a player who made a bodyguard and was unhappy about having to take a lot of the dump-talent Barrage. He was like "I don't even use big weapons."

Well, Bodyguard is a terrible bodyguard. He's better off with Instructor.

10 minutes ago, whafrog said:

Well, Bodyguard is a terrible bodyguard. He's better off with Instructor.

Bodyguard better represents a member of an elite bodyguard unit serving some Outer Rim power (political/corporate/criminal) than it does a close protection specialist focused on protecting an individual.

Any idea what the design premise is by "dump Talents" in the trees though?

19 minutes ago, Archlyte said:

Any idea what the design premise is by "dump Talents" in the trees though?

It's not about "dump Talents" really. It's about getting players to round out their characters, at the same time as functionally increasing the cost of the best talents.

It's like Supreme Overcharge (Cybernetics tree), which I plan to get in a couple of sessions, is functionally maybe 55 xp talent, with the two talents before being 10 xp ones. Sure, on paper all are 25 xp, but really the two other 25 xp talents on the tree are 10 xp plus 15 xp for being closer to Supreme Overcharge.

Many trees are like that. Typically Dedication and Force Rating involve hitting some low value talents first.

First pass, this simply looks like an overpowered version of the Bounty Hunter's Martial Artist spec. It's not as bad as some of the attempts at a "Jedi Padawan" universal specs that some have attempted on these boards, but it has the problem of making the previously mentioned Martial Artist spec superfluous, which is in and of itself a major problem.

1 hour ago, Donovan Morningfire said:

First pass, this simply looks like an overpowered version of the Bounty Hunter's Martial Artist spec. It's not as bad as some of the attempts at a "Jedi Padawan" universal specs that some have attempted on these boards, but it has the problem of making the previously mentioned Martial Artist spec superfluous, which is in and of itself a major problem.

Yeah the Martial Artist didn't do it for me as far as their abilities or description, and I think because I cap xp around 400 for my campaign this spec doesn't seem too egregious. But I bow to you guys concerning more mainstream play, and I know you're an old hat Donovan.

I think on second pass I will increase all of the XP values for the tree so the first row will be 10 instead of 5 and go up in increments of 10. Thank you so much for feedback, and hopefully continued help as I post the next version of it.

Crazy idea - If you want a high level more expensive but better martial art, why not make a signature ability that can be stuck on the bottom of any unarmed combat based specialisation? Also means character will shine once (or twice) a session rather than every fight.