The Jedi Problem

"Hey, kid. How're we doing?"

"Same as always."

"That bad, huh?"

I don't expect this one to be as long as our other class problem post. Paladin was a big can of worms, with problems steeped in its history and molded by previous editions of Dungeons and Dragons. It has its fair share of alternate media, but none of it did as much damage as the book descriptions did. I had a lot to talk about. Jedi, on the other hand, break games for wildly different reasons. I'm also not going to discuss, YET, any of the fixes Star Wars Saga Edition made. I'll do that when I have easy access to the book. If it's got to be a little shorty update in the middle of the week, so be it. In the spirit of full disclosure, we're working with a mild bias here. I hate jedi. I can't stand them. Part of it is because of problems I've got with the Star Wars movies, part of it is their general design and tone, but a lot of it is because of problems we're discussing here. So, here we fucking go.

Alright, first off, we've got to clear the air about something. Star Wars D20 was made in the late 90s. The days of class balance being wildly off because "that's how it should be" are long, long gone. I'm not going to entertain any defense of the jedi that includes the idea that they "should" be more powerful than the other classes. The reasoning is simple: in a system with completely unrestricted character concepts and ideas, all you're doing is ensuring that every single player picks Jedi. If you set a restriction on "how many" Jedi can be in the party, you're going to create N-X upset players, where N is the number of total players, and X is the amount of Jedi you've allowed.

I'm glad we got that out of the way. I'm going to focus on differences, meaning clear advantages, disadvantages, and things that affect Jedi more than other classes. This means something that both Guardian and Soldier(for example) can attain in similar ways isn't even going to get a mention. Lemme get something off my chest right now, though: Some of SWD20's classes really aren't very good. Outside of some fringe(HAH!) uses and archetype builds, I really can't recommend Fringer or Scout for anything. Fringer's key ability, its bonus to Jury Rig, may seem enticing, but really it's a check you're going to seek to AVOID making because jury rig repairs always fall apart eventually. They're quicker, but even in Star Wars a time crunch isn't going to come up every session. Scout has a few enticing abilities like evasion, but when you factor in the idea that evasion isn't going to be used for much except grenades...and grenades aren't really that great to begin with...then suddenly it seems a lot less enticing. The only thing Scout is good for is the mental image of Chewbacca wiping the fucking floor with Emperor Palpatine, because Force Lightning allows a reflex save. Wookie 4 life, bitches.

Force Skills. I'm going for the throat and discussing the biggest problem first. One of the Jedi's disadvantages is that force skills must be purchased with skill points, and it's dominant strategy to take many of them and leave your basic skills to rot. This is because the force skills are insanely useful at worst, and game-breaking at best. Obviously this means our first problem is that they get access to things no other class gets, not a huge problem here but a theme later, as you'll see. I'll go down by each skill that's relevant enough to mention.

Affect Mind. Good old jedi mind trick. You can use this skill once per scene per person, and you can bet that the jedi will do it every time there's a disagreement of any kind. Unlike diplomacy, this is straight up post hypnotic suggestion and functions as a psychic baseball bat to the temple of potentially every NPC you make. It's not EXACTLY overpowered, but as a GM, you're going to be sick of it by session two.

Battlemind and Enhance Ability. This is the first big problem. Battlemind is a move action to activate and gives a bonus to attack rolls. a +3 is a trivial DC of 15, and +4 is a 25, meaning the Jedi will be ahead on attacks as early as level one. This is compounded by Enhance Ability, which is an attack action to use, meaning the jedi can "power up" in a single round. a +4 is a moderately trivial DC 20. Even with the potentially lost round, the Jedi has a +6 lead on attacks and +2 on damage as early as level 7. These are even CON skills, meaning his bonus is always going to be good. The soldier has no way to make this up. Even if Mastercraft weapons didn't also apply to lightsabers(they do), their bonus only goes to +3, and they're expensive and rare.

Heal Self. Star Wars D20 uses a vitality and wounds system. This means your "HP" is counted by near misses and nonthreatening blows. Your "Wound points" cover actual wounds and are ticked off by critical hits, your vitality being out, or simply being a mook. Jedi spend their vitality on activating all of their powers. In other words, some dumb asshole thought it was acceptable to give Jedi a spell that can restore their spell slots. Unlike Treat Injury's vitality restoration(which they can also use) being once a day, Heal Self is once per hour.

This is, of course, in addition to getting force powers which do anything under the sun like Illusion, Fear, Force Strike, and Move Object. I hesitate to list them as problems because the jedi is intended as a spellcaster, however Consular has 3/4ths AB, and Guardian has 1:1 AB. This begins a trend of both classes being not just Jack of All Trades, but being as good or better at these things than the other classes. Guardian gets the same skill point number as Soldier, but also access to force skills, and things like deflect and scaling lightsaber damage. Soldier gets more feats, but Guardian still even GETS bonus feats: Just not as many. Consular trades a minor amount of damage and some of its AB for higher skill points and skill emphasis feats. Overall not the best decision, but the class is still head and shoulders above others, especially since force powers are pretty awesome and they've got more skill points for them.

Lightsaber Defense Feats. At 3, 7 and 11 a jedi(not a force user, a jedi) can take a feat that gives him +2 AC while wielding a lightsaber. Yes, they stack. They specifically say they stack. This is the biggest thing I found that's completely insane while researching for this. No, this isn't a catch-up Jedi use because they can't wear armor. They totally can wear armor, they just don't get the proficiencies for free. Even then, armor doesn't give defense bonus in this system, just damage reduction to wound points. It's not as important and most people don't bother. No, the Jedi is seriously just 6 defense ahead by level 11.

Lightsaber Damage. Before we move on from pure mechanics I need to mention this. So, the majority of damage sources in Dungeons and Dragons scale. Wizards get better spells, fighters get better weapons, the monk gets higher dice. Well, in SWD20, this basically doesn't happen. This is acceptable because of the Mook system where you're not intended to fight NPCs with vitality points very often. This keeps combat quick and lets soldiers capitalize on their scaling number of attacks via feats like autofire. Jedi lightsaber damage scales, though. Like, really high. At level 20, the Jedi is doing 6D8 as a guardian, or 5D8 as a consular. It's ALREADY a pretty awesome exotic weapon. This is the same system that has a dedicated unarmed combatant soldier still doing 3D4 damage and spending two feats on it, and with many combatants, they're still using the same 3D8 blaster rifle or 2D10 vibroaxe they used at level one. Vibro weapons require a special feat, by the way. Deflect isn't a particularly unbalanced ability on its own, but it ensures that you can't even pick the Jedi off at a range: Either you're rolling on an immense AC and having to dodge your own fucking blaster bolts, or you're stepping into the Jedi's 6D8 murderzone.

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There's another problem, too. The Jedi is mechanically superior in many ways to the other classes, and the books certainly contain even more attainable powers, feats, new skills and even equipment for Jedi. Via feats just in the core book they can cause whirlwinds, group buff, FUCKING FLY, move at immense speeds, or other tricks. They can QUICKEN their force powers by level 7, removing that "buff round" I was talking about earlier. They can take double lightsabers(Thanks, Ray Park), short lightsabers for your offhand, TWO HANDED lightsabers, lightsabers that fucking change size, ones with reach, and all kinds of other crap. They even get prestige classes like Jedi Ace and Jedi Investigator, so there's not a single thing in the entire game a Jedi can't be better than you at, even piloting a starship.

Maybe you already caught on to what I'm saying. Source for Jedi dominates the game's supplements. It's everywhere. Light Side and Dark Side both have full supplements to themselves. In fact, despite the fact that it's pretty awesome, most GMs consider letting someone have Sith secrets verboten, so that's a full book of things the average player is never even going to fucking see. Non-Jedi can't get a single thing to themselves. The Hero's Guide is inarguably the system's best supplement and introduces some much needed concepts like Martial Arts forms. Unfortunately, it also has a handful of force powers and Lightsaber Form feats which...you guessed it, further improve the Jedi's defenses or damage. Like they needed the help.

But that's really the problem with Star Wars in a whole, isn't it? It's an immensely engaging and interesting world that we never see because a pseudo-intellectual spouting junk philosophy and waving a laser sword is constantly standing in front of it. The system(as well as the movies) constantly lay everything at the Jedi's feet in practical worship, to the point that many of the insane capabilities I listed above aren't restricted to force users, but specifically jedi. Dark Side Devotee and Sith Marauder are pointlessly bad even when compared to Force Adept, the actual balanced force class. Even the dark side is mechanically inferior to the all-mighty Jedi. And yes, before you say so, I know Yoda said it's not more powerful. I know he implied that the Light Side is a struggle, but it's worth it in the end. Do you see these mother fuckers struggling, though? This is what I meant when I said I hated jedi.

So. All that said, and all that bile burned off like jet fuel launching a rocket into space, what's the solution?

Isn't it obvious?