KOTOR 1 - Notes from my 2023 playthrough

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

AUTHOR'S NOTE: these are loose notes from my 2023 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 games, stop reading now.

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This is a place to collect thoughts for my 2023 playthrough.

This playthrough is connected to a nine-chapter fanfic. The main character is a male Scoundrel/Guardian named Tevano.

This fanfic would link pretty well to a grayish run. This main character could have a very complex and personality, with warring tendancies that come out in different ways at different times. From a gameplay perspective, this means I get to just pick whatever dialog option seems fun, and there's always a way to justify it. He will go hard Light at the end, when required to make a decision. But he probably won't make it to Light Side Mastery unless he's already drifting that way in the late game. Not getting it gives up the +3 STR bonus, which I would miss a little in the final fight, but I'd be okay without it. This character should probably be Light-ish the whole time, but with some Dark aspects that show up now and then, so Mastery isn't out of the question, just not guaranteed depending on how I end up playing.

Trask Ulgo personality (the version of Trask from the associated fanfic, which is mostly what I'll be playing him as):
But there's also a fair amount of Revan mixed into the main character too, and it comes out now and then in unexpected ways. Part of his character journey is reconciling these competing, disconnected parts of himself and becoming who he really is. He thinks he's Tevano at the beginning, but he's really not yet. By the end of it all, he is.

Scoundrel/Guardian, to combine Sneak Attack with Force Jump and one-shot enemies. Been awhile since I had Force Jump, and it is loads of fun. The "Scoundrel" part of the build comes from his Revan side, and the "Guardian" part comes from his Trask side. It is a little ironic that the Jedi portion of the build is inspired by his non-Jedi side, and the non-Jedi portion of the build is inspired by the greatest Jedi of the age. But it makes sense, from a certain point of view. First, his Force abilities take awhile to manifest, per the fanfic (which conveniently matches the game, how about that? Almost like I did it on purpose.). So starting as a non-Jedi is only natural. But beyond that, he imprinted on the tendancies and personalities of Revan and Trask, not their memories or experience. His mind constructed a narrative consistent with that blend, but that's all him, not them. And Revan never really followed a Jedi path. He was really more of a Scoundrel in many ways. While by contrast, Trask would happily have followed a Jedi path, had he been capable of it. All of this is part of the internal contradiction that Tevano has to unite in order to become a unified, whole person of his own, rather than an unhappy amalgamation of mismatched parts from Revan and Trask.

Force Jump requires:
Sneak Attack requires one of:
The main character should normally get one Sneak Attack from the initial Force Jump. Additional Sneak Attacks will depend on the main character either burning a round to cast Insanity (which may not always be worth it) or companions stunning. It might be worthwhile for the main character to have decent Stealth, because Force Jump won't always be possible due to line-of-sight and/or distance issues. Also, if Mission is in the party, it will probably be useful for the main character to overrun the enemies then turn around to fight, causing the enemies to turn their backs to Mission (and therefore triggering her Sneak Attacks).
Here are some Scoundrel/Guardian build links, of various quality:
Some takeaways, as they apply to my character concept for this particular playthrough:
Conclusion: this will be an armor-wearing, STR-based character who seldom uses Force powers that are affected by armor, instead relying on companions for Force support. This character will struggle in some solo situations, but that's expected. As Trask told him on the Endar Spire: "you'll have more success with a party than on your own."

This does leave me playing through Taris as a high-STR Scoundrel, which may be a little challenging. I should probably stick to normal ranged attacks, as I won't have the health to melee. Concussion grenades will be my friend, especially in the dueling ring. At least I'm not saving levels...

========== PLANET ORDER =========

This main character starts out conflicted, making both Dark and Light choices, and then becomes strongly Light Side by the end of the game. Korriban can be the turning point for his alignment journey, where he comes face-to-face with the Dark Side, rejects it, reconciles his competing traits and really becomes Tevano instead of an uneasy combination of Revan and Trask. So redeeming Yuthura Ban AND talking to her afterward on Dantooine is a good fit. And it's fun.

Redeeming Yuthura AND talking to her later means Korriban has to be the 2nd or 3rd Star Map (Dantooine is 1st). If it is the 4th, then the Leviathan triggers and Dantooine is gone before I can talk to her, and if it is the 5th, Dantooine is already gone before she is redeemed. So even though I can redeem her regardless of planet order, I only get the full experience if Korriban is the 2nd or 3rd. And Carth's Dustil quest doesn't trigger until after the 2nd, so Korriban really shouldn't be my first post-Dantooine Star Map. I can go other places all I want first, I just can't get their Star Map.

The Genoharadan quest line is probably also a good alignment turning point. If I do this early, the main character can realize the Dark Side is destructively deceitful. Being used as an unwitting assassin could push him toward the Light. Plus, I'll get a bunch of Dark Side points that I need time to make up for. So do that early as well, Doing all this in an alignment-optimal way that leaves me plenty of Light Side points to make up the the Genoharadan Dark Side point leads to lots of planet-hopping. But Carth seems to enjoy flying the Hawk, so okay.

The plan is:
  1. Dantooine (initial visit after Taris)
    • Do the Mandalorian Raiders quest but do not turn it in
    • Get the Sandral-Matale Feud quest but do not actually resolve the feud
    • 1st Star Map
  2. Yavin, sell stuff, win 10 rounds of Pazaak to get discount.
  3. Tatooine (big trip)
    • Do not buy the wraid plate from the lady by the hunting lodge
    • Do not do the swoop races
    • Do Mission and Bastila's quests
    • Get HK-47
    • 2nd Star Map
    • Kill Calo Nord (as I leave the Star Map cave)
    • Do not give the pearl to the sandpeople
    • Start Genoharadan quest (guy in Anchorhead gives me datapad to take to Manaan)
    • Start Carth's quest for Dustil
  4. Yavin, sell stuff
  5. Manaan (quick trip)
    • Go straight to Genoharadan guy (go alone)
    • Kill Lorgal in the Republic Base (requires 9 computer spikes, as I won't have Force Choke or Force Kill). I'll have to get the Republic quest, but don't advance it.
    • Turn in Lorgal quest, get remaining Genoharadan bounties
    • Go to swoop track, do not do swoop races, talk to Vek, go to docking bay, kill Ithorak
  6. Kashyyyk (first half)
    • Start Wookie quest, lose use of Zaalbar
    • Get Jolee
    • Kill Rulan (southwest of Jolee's hut)
    • Do not go into Lower Shadowlands
  7. Tatooine (quick trip)
    • Take Jolee off the Hawk, to start the Trial quest
    • Kill Vorn
  8. Manaan (quick trip)
    • Trial (I may decide to take some Dark Side points here, so do before Dantooine. Otherwise, I could defer this until my next visit.)
  9. Dantooine (finish stuff)
    • Do not get Sasha off the ship (yet)
    • Kill Zuulan (sounding the alarm instead of placing a bomb gets more XP)
    • Avoid getting Dark Side points after this. We're pushing for Light Side Mastery now.
    • Finish Mandalorian Raiders, resolve feud, get Sasha off the ship
    • Buy the CNS Strength Enhancer (if I didn't already)
  10. Manaan (quick trip)
    • Turn in Genoharadan quests (no Dark Side points for doing this). Doing this now means the guy will be on Tatooine when I go there later.
    • Do swoop race (give Qeedle credits for LS points)
    • Could do trial here if I don't do it earlier.
  11. Kashyyyk again
    • Go to Lower Shadowlands, finish Wookie quest, get Zaalbar back. There will be some Light Side points here (that's why we didn't do it earlier).
    • Do not get Star Map
  12. Korriban (big trip)
    • Make sure Carth has the Dustil quest (should have gotten it awhile back)
    • Redeem errbody, including Yuthura, to make up for all those Dark Side points
    • Make sure none of my companions are wearing my best +Demo gear before the tomb (I'll want it for myself)
    • 3rd Star Map
    • Make sure to do the drug deal with the guy outside the cantina. No hurry, can do after the Star Map. Surprisingly, no Dark Side points for that.
  13. Yavin, sell stuff, buy other stuff. He will have new goodies this time.
  14. Tatooine again (for LS points)
    • Buy the wraid plate from the lady by the hunting lodge
    • Kill the Genohardran guy
    • Should be able to do the Canderous/Jagi quest by now.
    • Give the pearl to the sandpeople (take HK-47 to translate). Then piss them off during the conversation and kill them all, like animals. Women and children too. They attack me if I say the wong (right) thing, so no Dark Side points. Darth Vader theme doesn't even play.
    • Turn in gaffi sticks to the Czerka lady on the way out for a bunch of credits
  15. Dantooine (quick stop)
    • Talk to Yuthura (outside the enclave) and Kel Algwinn (in the training room). No Light Side points or anything, but fun for story purposes.
    • If I want anything from the Dantooine merchant, this is my last chance.
  16. Manaan (finish)
    • Go to swoop races. Talk to Queedle. Give him 500 credits to fix up his bike. Get Light Side points.
    • Win all the swoop races for lots of sweet credits to spend at Yavin.
    • Talk to Queedle again. He'll try to pay the money back. Refuse. He insists. Get the money back AND more Light Side Points for trying to turn it down.
    • 4th Star Map
    • If I were repairing HK-47, I'd need to finish before leaving Manaan. But I'm not.
    • Talk to Juhani on the Hawk but do not take her off. Level her until she stops talking. So much talking, so much Russian cat lady accent. Maybe turn off the sound.
  17. Leviathan.
    • Unequip everything from Bastila when I get to red corridor, just after the room where I can see the Hawk in the hanger through the window
  18. Yavin, sell stuff (optional, can skip if I don't need credits)
  19. Kashyyk (last time)
    • quick run to get 5th Star Map. Be sure to take Jolee for the force field.
  20. Korriban
    • Meet Ziagrom, who tells me about the premium store.
    • Buy stuff at premium store
    • Take Juhani off the Hawk to trigger Xor
    • Fight Xor (hopefully can just get on Hawk and back off, but may have to fly to Kashyyyk or Manaan and get off there for this to trigger)
  21. Yavin (last visit, fight Transdoshians, he will have new stuff afterward. No merchants after this, so spending spree time)
  22. Star Forge system
NOTES:
To redeem people in the Sith Academy:

========== SKILLS ===========

Scoundrel Class Skills: Demolitions, Stealth, Awareness, Persuade, Security
Guardian Class Skills: Awareness, Persuade, Treat Injury
Neither class has the following: Computer, Repair
The following skills require training: Demolitions, Stealth, Security
The following skills seem useful for this build, in priority order:
For Taris, Awareness, Stealth, Demolitions, and Persuade are most important.
Later on, Demolitions is less important, but Treat Injury because more useful.
Probably level Awareness and Persuade, with a sprinkling of the others.
Guess who won't be fixing up HK-47 this playthrough? I can justify that as Trask not being comfortable with an assassin droid in the first place, and also sensing the dangerous connection to Revan.

Assuming I stick with 14 INT, I'll get 24 skill points at character creation, 5 at each Scoundrel level, then 2 at each Guardian level. That's not a ton, and they're heavily front loaded so I may want to save some for later levels, but it should be enough to get by without giving up anything significant except HK-47. I'll have to break locks open when I can't get companions to do it.

For this build, and assuming I don't wear skill-boosting gear, there's no point in boosting Awareness over 20 or Persuade over 19. And if I'm not going to take Persaude to 19, I should stop it at 13, because the way the breakpoints work, those are the optimal values.
There's a great post here on how Stealth and Awareness work in both games: https://www.reddit.com/r/kotor/comments/ovh0j8/understanding_stealth/

My takeaway is that, if I really care about Stealth, I need to max it. And that still won't be enough for some enemies without significant gear/stat boosting, which I'm unlikely to do. Using Stealth at all is a little silly. Wearing a Stealth Generator means I can't wear anything else in that slot, and switching it out frequently would be annoying. The game isn't that hard, and I'd be just fine with ignoring Stealth. But I've never played a KOTOR character that combined Sneak Attack, melee and Stealth, and it sounds interesting to try. So I'm going to do it, even though it might end up being a waste.

Demolitions of 25 is needed to set Deadly mines (only 20 is needed for Average mines). I get +2 from INT, and can get as high as +16 from gear, but more realistically +13 from gear (the extra +3 would require a 10,000 credit item from Yavin). So hitting 25 with realistic gear means I'd need to invest 10 points for Deadly or 5 points for Average. Recovering mines is higher and not something I'll pursue with this character - companions can do that for me. And companions can do most of the mine setting. But there are a couple of solo sections where I might want to set Average mines myself, and 5 points isn't much to take. Setting mines is absolutely unnecessary - this build can handle all the combat without cheesing mines. But it might be fun sometimes, and plays well with all my stealth that I'm taking (also just for fun).

========== FEATS ===========

I'll get 10 selected Feats.

I'll get Critical Strike (and Sniper Shot, although I won't use ranged much) for free.

Critical Strike sounds great, except that the crit multiplier doesn't multiply the Sneak Attack damage, AND the stun not only doesn't last long, but also only takes affect *after* the current attack. So it isn't as powerful for either doing damage OR triggering Sneak Attack as you'd hope. And Force Jump only works with the standard attack, so I can't use Critical Strike to help me one-shot.

With that said, equipping Mission with some high-stun-chance blasters (see my 2022 playthrough notes or my Mission build sheet for a list) and having her use Sniper Shot might be worthwhile. I'd get occasional Sneak Attacks off her somewhat-unreliable stuns.

And, with a Keen weapon and Master Critical Strike, I get a 50% chance at crits (https://strategywiki.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_Knights_of_the_Old_Republic/Feats#Critical_Strike). Flurry would be more dependable, but this build is about burst damage, so Critical Strike is more consistent with the theme of the build.

Two-Weapon Fighting is a must, but due to penalties it isn't wise to actually use two weapons until after getting the second rank, and maybe not until the third. Should I do that first, on Taris, when I'm weak and leaning on companions anyway? Or should I take things on Taris that have immediate benefit, at the cost of not being able to dual-wield until later? I'll probably do it first, just so that when I get Guardian I can immediatly start using the combat style I'm envisioning.

Implant I, II, and III are important.

I have in mind for this character to wear armor. This is more a stylistic choice than a mathematical one, so I could give it up. But if I do that, I'll have to take Armor Proficiency: Medium. The best armor in the game for this build is the Heavy Exoskeleton, which is Medium Armor. So no need for Armor Proficiency: Heavy.

I'll get Critical Strike for free, but I'd have to select Improved and Master. Some additional feats that aren't essential, but might be of interest: Toughness, Improved Toughness, Weapon Focus: Melee Weapons, Weapon Specialization: Melee Weapons, Weapon Focus: Lightsaber, and Weapon Specialization: Lightsaber.

If I'm using the Baragwin Assault Blade in my main hand, the "Melee Weapons" feats are more valuable than the "Lightsaber" ones.

I could get Weapon Focus: Melee Weapons and Weapon Specialization: Melee Weapons from the Advanced Combat Implant. But then I couldn't use the Cardio Power System (CON +4) or the Advanced Bio-Stabilizer Implant (Immunity to Mind-Affecting and Poision)

Improved Toughness gives +2/level to health and -2 to damage taken. So that's better than the CON +4 I'd get from the implant, because of the damage reduction. In other words, better to select the feats than to use the implant.

The Advanced Bio-Stabilizer Mask gives Immunity to Mind-Affecting and Poision, at the cost of looking stupid. Oh, and then I can't wear Circlet of Saresh for the +5 WIS. But this isn't a caster build, so I can live with that.

I think that leaves me prioritizing the first two Toughness feats if I have any room for "nice-to-have" feats.

========== FORCE POWERS ===========

I'll get 14 Force Powers.

I need *something* to zap the Star Forge battery Jedis with. So at least one of:
Some general thoughts on Force Powers:
If I make *not* having to take armor on and off a goal, I'm gimping myself quite a bit. The Speed and Valor lines are super powerful for this build. But also super inconvenient. I could take them, but only use them to prep for hard fights. But then I can't reapply during the fight, so for long fights it only helps at the beginning. I could have companions take the Valor line and just deal with not having it when I'm solo. If a companion takes Speed and is party leader, I still get the "run fast" benefit. I just won't get the extra two attacks per round. Speed probably matters less than Valor anyway for most fights, because my damage output should be sufficient to do a lot of one-shotting.

I also want to primarily use weapons for damage. If I'm mainly using a Force Power for non-damage reasons (stunning) and it happens to do some damage, fine. But for this build, I don't want to take any powers whose main purpose is damage. That keeps me from getting lazy and spamming them instead of using the build like I'm supposed to.

I've never taken Affect Mind and Dominate Mind, but with all those restrictions I just placed on myself, I may have room for them this time.
So probably take (not necessarily in this order):

========== GEAR ===========

I'm not going to stress about early or mid game gear. Just use whatever seems best at the time. End game gear should be:
Upgrades I should use for my gear:

Main Hand: Vibration Cell, Durasteel Bonding Alloy, Energy Projector
Off Hand: Mantle of Force + Solari + Phond
Armor: Mesh Underlay, Armor Reinforcement

Wow, that's a lot of credits. By only selling at Yavin, where I get more credits, I ended having enough to buy not only all that, but some good stuff for companions too.

The "Heavy Exoskeleton", despite the name, is Medium Armor. The Light Exoskeleton is pretty good too, and would allow feats to be spent elsewhere. But it isn't quite as good.

======================

Skills Matrix

Party Member Persuade Computer Use Stealth Awareness Repair Security Treat Injury Demolitions
Tevano Max Max Max 1 Some 4
Mission Max Max Max Max
Bastila Max
Jolee Max
Carth Max
Zaalbar Max Max Max
Canderous Max
Juhani Max
HK-47 Max Max
T3-M4 Max Some Max Max Some

This is what each party member should focus on for this playthrough, not what they're inherently best at. The matrix may show a party member taking Max of a cross-class skill. This just means they should take as much as they can. This is sometimes useful if, based on the expected combinations of party members, there would otherwise be nobody taking that skill at all.
Some of that is a little vague, but despite all appearances to the contrary, there's a limit to how obsessively I'm willing to preplan a playthrough.

======================

Progression details per level (g = granted, s = selected)

Character Level Class Level Attributes Skills Feats Force Powers
1 Scoundrel 1 STR: 16 (+3)
WIS: 10 (+0)
CHA: 10 (+0)
INT: 14 (+2)
CON: 14 (+2)
DEX: 12 (+1)
 24 points
Stealth +4 (4)
Awareness +4 (4)
Persuade +4 (4)
Security +1 (1)
Demolitions +4 (4)
Bank +7 (7)		 Armor Proficiency: Light Armor (g)
Weapon Proficiency: Blaster Pistol (g)
Weapon Proficiency: Blaster Rifle (g)
Weapon Proficiency: Melee Weapons (g)
Critical Strike (g)
Sniper Shot (g)
Scoundrel's Luck (g)
Sneak Attack I (g)
Two-Weapon Fighting (s)
2 Scoundrel 2 5 points
Demolitions +1 (5)
Stealth +1 (5)
Awareness +1 (5)
Persuade +1 (5)
Bank +1 (8)		 Implant I (s)
3 Scoundrel 3 5 points
Demolitions +1 (6)
Stealth +1 (6)
Awareness +1 (6)
Persuade +1 (6)
Bank +1 (9)		 Sneak Attack II (g)
4 Scoundrel 4 CON +1, 15 (+2) 5 points
Demolitions +1 (7)
Stealth +1 (7)
Awareness +1 (7)
Persuade +1 (7)
Bank +1 (10)
5 Scoundrel 5 5 points
Demolitions +1 (8)
Stealth +1 (8)
Awareness +1 (8)
Persuade +1 (8)
Bank +1 (11)		 Sneak Attack III (g)
Improved Two-Weapon Fighting (s)
6 Scoundrel 6 5 points
Stealth +1 (9)
Awareness +1 (9)
Persuade +1 (9)
Bank +2 (13)		 Improved Scoundrel's Luck (g)
7 Scoundrel 7 5 points
Stealth +1 (10)
Awareness +1 (10)
Persuade +1 (10)
Bank +2 (15)		 Sneak Attack IV (g)
8 Guardian 1 CON +1, 16 (+3) 2 points
Stealth +1 (11)
Awareness +1 (11)
Persuade +1 (11)
Treat Injury +10 (10)
Bank -11 (4)		 Weapon Proficiency: Lightsaber (g)
Jedi Defense (g)
Force Jump (g)
Jedi Sense (g)
Force Sensitive (g)
Master Two-Weapon Fighting (s)		 Affect Mind
Cure
9 Guardian 2 2 points
Stealth +1 (12)
Awareness +1 (12)
Persuade +1 (12)
Bank -1 (3)		 Dominate Mind
10 Guardian 3 2 points
Stealth +1 (13)
Awareness +1 (13)
Persuade +1 (13)
Bank -1 (2)		 Armor Proficiency: Medium Fear
11 Guardian 4 2 points
Stealth +1 (14)
Awareness +1 (14)
Persuade +1 (14)
Bank -1 (1)		 Horror
12 Guardian 5 STR +1, 17 (+3) 2 points
Stealth +1 (15)
Awareness +1 (15)
Persuade +1 (15)
Bank -1 (0)		 Insanity
13 Guardian 6 2 points
Awareness +1 (16)
Persuade +1 (16)		 Improved Force Jump (g)
Knight Sense (g)
Toughness		 Stun Droid
14 Guardian 7 2 points
Awareness +1 (17)
Persuade +1 (17)		 Implant II (s) Disable Droid
15 Guardian 8 2 points
Awareness +1 (18)
Persuade +1 (18)
 Destory Droid
16 Guardian 9 STR +1, 18 (+4) 2 points
Awareness +1 (19)
Persuade +1 (19)		 Implant III (s) Heal
17 Guardian 10 2 points
Stealth +1 (16)
Awareness +1 (20)		 Energy Resistance
18 Guardian 11 2 points
Stealth +2 (18)		 Improved Energy Resistance
19 Guardian 12 2 points
Stealth +2 (20)		 Master Force Jump (g)
Master Sense (g)
Improved Toughness		 Push
20 Guardian 13 STR +1, 19 (+4) 2 points
Stealth +2 (22)		 Improved Critical Strike (s) Whirlwind

From a min-max perspective, I made a number of poor decisions in this build. But that was on purpose. The build is designed for an enjoyable playthrough, not maximum ... well ... anything. I was mostly exploring a character concept, and sacrificed some combat effectiveness for role playing reasons. It should be fine to beat the game with, just not quite as strong as it could be.

The extra Demolitions is really for the solo tomb on Korriban. This amount, along with decent but not great gear that I should have by then, is sufficient to recover Average mines and disable Deadly ones.

This much Stealth is a little silly, as stealth kinda sucks in KOTOR 1. But I just wanted to experiment with it for fun, and as I'm not bothering with Repair for this playthough, I had the extra points. They would really have been better spent on Treat Injury - because my WIS is low, so I won't have a ton of Force Points to self-heal. And also casting Heal burns a full round, but I can use a medpack instantly from inventory. So if I decide I need more Treat Injury, I could steal it from Stealth (note: I didn't)

On starting stats, a more powerful STR/armor combat build would drop INT and DEX to 10 or even 8 and put the points in STR/WIS/CHA. Dropping DEX and INT both to 8 would let me put STR to 18, and WIS/CHA both to 12. (Or maybe STR 17, DEX 10, WIS 13.) But the skill points I get from INT and having a bit more DEX for Taris will make the playthrough more fun for me. So I'm compromising my build a bit to get them.

Not taking the Speed and Valor lines is a big negative for my damage output through the middle of the game (by the end I'm flirting with the STR cap anyway, so it makes less difference in the late game). But I really, really, want this character to wear armor, and I also really, really don't want to be yeeting it on and off all the stupid time. So I'm going to have companions handle Valor and just do without Speed.

Another questionable decision is taking Affect Mind and Dominate Mind. And taking them so early. The idea is that this build isn't built around Force Powers anyway, so companions should mostly be handling casting. I won't have significant solo fights until later in the game (Korriban, Star Forge) so there's no big hurry. And I've never tried Affect/Dominate Mind before, so I don't want to miss any conversation opportunities with them.

Playthrough Results (Normal Difficulty):

This may be the most fun I've every had with Taris. Not because it was good, but because it was laughably, hilariously bad. That wasn't because of the build - combat was fine and between myself and my companions I had sufficient skills to do everything I wanted to.

No, it was hilariously bad for two reasons:
Combat generally went like this: I'd Stealth up to an enemy. They would often see me anyway (remember, I was underleveled). If not, I'd do a Sneak Attack from Stealth. But because I was underleveled, that only added 1-6 damage. Still, at least early, I'd often one-shot whoever I attacked. But if not, I was left surrounded as a level 2 melee Scoundrel. LOL. Surprisingly, the whole party didn't die much. But I did cheese the heck out of the Transit To Hideout full-heal trick.

Once I allowed myself and companions to start taking levels, things got a lot smoother (if less funny). I took my last two planned Taris levels during the Davik fight, taking me to level 7. That fight was a little challenging, but not ridiculously so.

Once I became a Jedi Guardian, things really picked up. Between Force Jump and Master Two Weapon Fighting, I did a lot of one-shotting on Dantooine, with Mission and Carth mowing down anyone who was left. With a few medpacks, I was able to go toe-to-toe with the Mandalorian leader. None of the fights throughout the game were really in question. I occasionally used either a few medpacks or cheesy full heals from deferred levelups on the harder fights: Calo Nord, the two Korriban terentatek, Darth Bandon. Mostly I just plowed through everything, Force Jumping my way across the galaxy, and Sneak Attacking from Stealth now and then just for the heck of it. Sometimes I would control a companion and let the AI trigger Force Jump, bouncing my main character around like a crazed murder rabbit. Sometimes he lept completely out of sight, and by the time I caught up, everything was dead.

Malak folded like a cheap suit. I beat him the first time in a few seconds, then he did the one full heal you can't avoid. I then ignored him while he hacked at me as I ran around zapping the battery Jedi with Destroy Droid. That got my health a bit low, so I healed up. Then I clicked auto-attack and just watched. He died before I got back down to half health.

My STR during the Malak fight, wearing my end-game gear and with Hyper-Adrenal Strength active, was 38. My unadjusted STR (no gear, stims, etc.) was 19. That means I was getting +19 STR from various bonuses. The maximum attribute bonus (increase to the attribute itself, not the modifier that affects things like attack and damage) is +20. So I was getting almost as much bonus as the game allows. Taking the Master Valor line would have let me get that last +1 before getting capped. But my adjusted STR of 38 was an even number, so bumping that up to 39 wouldn't have done anything at all. If I had chosen to start with STR 18 and bumped STR every 4 levels (instead of bumping CON twice) I could have gotten an adjusted STR of 42. Again, Master Valor would have bumped me by only +1 (because of the +20 cap) to 43 (the maximum possible in the game). But because that is an odd number there would have been no benefit. Overall, I'm very happy with my choice of ignoring that line of powers and wearing the Heavy Exoskeleton.

All told, this is probably the strongest build I've played so far in KOTOR I, and still very well rounded.