KOTOR 1 - Notes from my 2020 playthrough

WARNING: the following contains heavy spoilers about KOTOR I. Do not read it if you haven't played the game yet.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: these are loose notes from my 2020 playthrough. They are very poorly organized, as they were only ever intended for my own personal use.

ANOTHER WARNING: you saw that there were going to be spoilers, right? If you haven't played the game, stop reading now.

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Names:
- Big R (this is what I went with)
- R Man
- Devan
- Rev
- Rev...uh...Devan
- Revan
- Avner
- Master
- Darth

Personality:

Confident, decisive
Comfortable with leadership
Mission- and cause- focused, but on his mission and cause, not on abstract ideology
Analytical, but in a purpose-driven way. Not intellectual for its own sake
Less concerned with Light vs Dark as with what he perceives as Right and Wrong
Is his own moral compass (which points the wrong way sometimes)
Willing to make sacrifices, and to sacrifice others
Unwilling to be overly distracted if it hurts the cause. Can have tunnel vision.
If inadvertently detoured, can let the distraction become the mission without realizing it
Empathetic, but sometimes to the wrong things
Cares about individuals, sometimes overly so. But through the lens of his priorities, not theirs.
Can let emotions take over
Not cruel, hateful, or greedy.
Unintentionally selfish.
Can justify his own actions to himself about just about anything.
Doesn't dwell on the past
Really, really hates losing

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Build
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Class: Scout / Guardian

Scout Levels: 5
Guardian Levels: 15

I could stop leveling Scout anywhere from 2-5. Stopping earlier gains a few late-game Force Powers, but makes the early game harder because I have to finish Taris under-leveled. Stopping at 5 is best for feats (because I never take Guardian levels 16 and 17, which don't gain any feats). Given that my character is melee/feat oriented and has low Wisdom, he is likely to rely more on feats than Force Powers in the late game. So probably take Scout to level 5.

== Attributes ==
Str:16 (+3)
Dex:10 (+0)
Const:14 (+2)
Int:14 (+2)
Wis:8 (-1)
Cha:14 (+2)

Revan is intelligent, charismatic, strong, and tough. He isn't all that wise, though, which sometimes gets him into trouble.

I'll gain 5 points at various levels. Probably best to put the into STR, but can decide later.

== Skills ==
Repair: 4
Persuade: 2
Awareness: 2
Treat Injury: 3

Persuade is a Scout cross-class skill, so putting any points into it before Guardian is kind of a waste. But it gives better early-game Persuade success, and this isn't a skill-focused build anyway so I'm not losing much.

This saves 7 skill points for Persuade, so that I can immediately take it to 9 if I change to Guardian at level 6. If I were change to Guardian earlier, I'd just have a few extra skill points to dump into Treat Injury/Awareness/Demolition.

At each Scout level, I'll put points into:
- Repair: 1
- Awareness: 1
- Demolitions: 1
- Treat Injury: 1

Then once I get Guardian, I'll put points into only:
- Persuade (until it hits an adjusted 19)
- Repair (until it hits an adjusted 17)
- Awareness/Demolition/Treat Injury (whichever seems most useful)
Those adjusted Persuade/Repair levels can take Master Valor into account.

Awareness/Demolition, in addition to their obvious uses, also allow making lots of credits via recovering and selling mines.

This leaves me without any points in several skills, some of which require training to use (Stealth, Security). But my companions can cover most of that for me. There's at least one quest I won't be able to solve in an optimally Light-Side way without Stealth, but that's okay. This version of Revan isn't all that sneaky anyway. Or obsessed with being Light-Side for that matter.

== Feats ==

Scout gets assigned feats at levels 1 and 4, and gets to select a feat at levels 1, 2, 3, and 5.
Guardian gets feats at various levels, but notably does not get any at levels 16 or 17.
So taking Scout to level 5 maximizes my end-game feats.

As a Scout 5 / Guardian 15, I receive 29 total feats (13 as Scout, 16 as Guardian). Of these, the following 18 are "Granted" (meaning I get them automatically as part of the 29):
- Light Armor (Scout 1)
- Medium Armor (Scout 1)
- Blaster Pistol (Scout 1)
- Blaster Rifle (Scout 1)
- Melee Weapons (Scout 1)
- Flurry (Scout 1)
- Rapid Shot (Scout 1)
- Implant 1 (Scout 1)
- Implant 2 (Scout 4)
- Uncanny Dodge (Scout 4) (Useless. This is about retaining DEX bonus. I won't have one.)
- Lightsaber (Guardian 1)
- Force Jump (Guardian 1)
- Jedi Sense (Guardian 1)
- Jedi Defense (Guardian 1)
- Knight Sense (Guardian 6)
- Improved Force Jump (Guardian 6)
- Master Sense (Guardian 12)
- Master Force Jump (Guardian 12)
This leaves me with 11 feats that I can select.

Two Weapon Fighting + Master Speed (a Force Power)+ Master Flurry is a good combo, and as a Scout I get Flurry as a starting feat.

For wielding dual lightsabers, Critical Strike might be slightly better mathematically than Flurry. But Scouts get Flurry for free, so getting to the higher ranks faster and having an extra feat available for something else outweighs that small difference.

Here is a full list of all feats, including granted feats and feats unusable my my main character's class. Additional feat levels and the associated class/level requirement are in parenthesis:
- Two-Weapon Fighting (Improved-4, Master-8): penalty reduction
- Armor Proficiency (Light)
- Armor Proficiency (Medium)
- Armor Proficiency (Heavy)
- Caution (Improved-4, Master-8): demolition/stealth skill bonus
- Critical Strike (Improved-4, Master-8): improved melee crits with declining penalties
- Empathy (Improved-4, Master-8): persuade/awareness/treat injury bonus
- Flurry (Improved-4, Master-8): extra melee attack with declining penalties
- Gear Head (Improved-4, Master-8): repair/security/computer use bonus
- Conditioning (Improved-4, Master-8): saving throw bonuses
- Implant Level I (II-4, III-8): allows equipping implants
- Power Attack (Improved-4, Master-8): adds damage to melee attacks
- Power Blast (Improved-4, Master-8): adds damage to ranged attacks
- Rapid Shot (Improved-4, Master-8): extra ranged attack with declining penalties
- Sniper Shot (Improved-4, Master-8): improved ranged crits with declining penalties
- Weapon Proficiency: Blaster Pistol (Focus, Specialization-Soldier 4): item use with bonuses
- Weapon Proficiency: Blaster Rifle (Focus, Specialization-Soldier 4): item use with bonuses
- Weapon Proficiency: Heavy Weapons (Focus, Specialization-Soldier 4): item use with bonuses
- Weapon Proficiency: Melee Weapons (Focus, Specialization-Soldier 4): item use with bonuses
- Uncanny Dodge I (Scout 4, II-Scout 7): retain DEX bonus on surprise, grenade save bonus
- Sneak Attack I (Scoundrel 1, goes up to VII at Scoundrel 13): situational damage bonus
- Toughness (Improved-4, Master-8): extra vitality and damage resistance
- Scoundrel's Luck (Scoundrel 1, Improved-Scoundrel 6, Master-Scoundrel 12): defense bonus
- Dueling (Improved-4, Master-8): single weapon bonuses (ranged and melee)
- Droid Upgrade Class 1 (Droid 1, Class 2-Droid 7, Class 3 - Droid 13): allows upgrade use
- Blaster Integration (Utility Droid, so only T3 can get this): allows blaster use
- Combat Logic Upgrade (Droid 1, Tactician-Droid 6, Battle-Droid 12): defense bonus
- Weapon Proficiency: Lightsaber (Jedi 1, Focus, Specialization-Guardian): item use, bonus
- Jedi Defense (Jedi 1, Advanced-Jedi 4, Master-Jedi 8): blaster deflection
- Force Immunity: Fear (Sentinel 1)
- Force Immunity: Stun (Sentinel 6)
- Force Immunity: Paralysis (Sentinel 12)
- Jedi Sense (Jedi 1, Knight-Jedi 6, Master-Jedi 12): defense bonus
- Force Sensitive (Jedi 1, Main Character): Force Point bonus
- Force Jump (Guardian 1, Improved-Guardian 6, Master-Guardian 12): jump to attack
- Force Focus (Consular 1, Improved-Consular 6, Master-Consular 12): enemy saving throw penalty

Here are the feats my main character should consider as one of the 11 selected feats:
- Two-Weapon Fighting: penalty reduction
- Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (4): penalty reduction
- Master Two-Weapon Fighting (8): penalty reduction
- Improved Flurry (4): extra melee attack with declining penalties
- Master Flurry (8): extra melee attack with declining penalties
- Weapon Focus: Lightsaber: attack bonus
- Weapon Specialization: Lightsaber: damage bonus
- Implant Level III (8): allows equipping implants
- Advanced Jedi Defense (4): blaster deflection
- Master Jedi Defense (8): blaster deflection
- Toughness (Improved-4, Master-8): extra vitality and damage resistance
- Conditioning (Improved-4, Master-8): saving throw bonuses
- Armor Proficiency (Heavy)
- Master Two-Weapon Fighting: penalty reduction

Heavy Armor is mostly a bad tradeoff (restricts Force Powers, notably Speed). But I might want it just to equip Revan's mask if I end up as Dark Side (and the mask won't restrict Force Powers). If I take it, I can do so toward the end, when I know if it'll be helpful.

What I actually took, in order:
Two-Weapon Fighting
Toughness (couldn't take any of the second-tier or Jedi feats yet)
Conditioning (couldn't take any of the second-tier or Jedi feats yet)
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (I could finally take second-tier feats)
Weapon Focus: Lightsaber: attack bonus
Weapon Specialization: Lightsaber: damage bonus
Improved Flurry
Armor Proficiency (Heavy)
Master Flurry
Implant III
Improved Toughness

== Force Powers ==

I'll get to choose 16 Force Powers.

Here are all available Force Powers, by type. Level requirements are character level, not Jedi level:

Dark Powers
- Drain Life (Death Field-18): damage opponent, heal self. Death Field adds AoE
- Fear (Horror-6, Insanity-12): disable non-droid enemies, base is single-target, others add AoE
- Shock (Lightning-9, Storm-18): electrical damage, base is single-target, later adds AoE
- Slow Affliction-6, Plague-12): single-target general debuff
- Wound (Choke-9, Kill-12): single target (non-droid) damage
Light Powers
- Cure (6, Heal-12): AoE vitality restoration
- Force Aura (Shield-6, Armor-12): defense and saving throw bonus
- Force Valor (Knight-9, Master-15): attribute and saving throw bonus
- Stun (Stasis 9, Stasis Field 15): slow/stun, 1st two levels are single-target, 3rd is AoE
- Stun Droid (Disable-6, Destroy-12): stun/damage droids
Universal Powers
- Affect Mind (Dominate-6): allows extra conversation options, only for main character
- Burst of Speed (Knight-9, Master-15): movement speed/defense/attack bonuses
- Energy Resistance (Improved-9): absorbs certain types of damage
- Force Push (Whirlwind-9, Wave-15): push back/stun/damage opponents, AoE
- Force Resistance (Immunity-15): resist Force attacks by enemies
- Force Suppression (Breach-15): cancel active enemy Force powers
- Throw Lightsaber (Advanced-9): damage 1 enemy at distance, Advanced damages 3

Dark/Light just affects the cost in Force Points. Any character can use any power.

Lightsaber Throw is useful in the final fight. Speed and Affect Mind both seem like must-takes

Someone needs Master Valor. I'm depending on it for repairing HK-47. Can one of my party members use this and have it contribute to the repair? I should test early, on the first repair, and take it myself if not.

For maximum flexibility, have:
- a healing Power
- a boosting Power
- a resistance Power
- a debilitating Power
- a damaging Power

I might take different powers depending on whether I drift Light or Dark, so I will probably want to decide as I go along. Earlier powers should be mostly Universal, because they'll be okay either way.

Some powers are restricted by armor, and because I'm melee I may want armor over robes. So might prioritize non-restricted powers.

Because I am feat-centric, Force Powers are mostly for fun and I can pick whatever I enjoy.

Initial priorities seem to be:
- Affect Mind
- Dominate Mind (6)
- Force Valor (unless it becomes apparent I don't need it for HK-47)
- Knight Valor (9) (unless it becomes apparent I don't need it for HK-47)
- Master Valor (15) (unless it becomes apparent I don't need it for HK-47)
- Cure
- Heal (12)
- Throw Lightsaber
- Advanced Throw Lightsaber (9)
That's 9 of my 16, after that I can decide the rest situationally.

What I actually took, in order:
Force Valor
Affect Mind
Dominate Mind
Cure
Knight Valor
Throw Lightsaber
Advanced Throw Lightsaber
Heal
Force Push
Force Whirlwind
Master Valor
Force Wave
Stun Droid
Disable Droid
Destroy Droid
Force Aura

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END OF BUILD
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