KOTOR 2 - 2021 Playthrough Notes

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

AUTHOR'S NOTE: these are loose notes from my 2021 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.

I changed at the last moment from a female exile to a male, so that I could try out Handmaiden as a companion. Named him Surik to remain at least sorta-canon.

Meetra wouldn't have known about the Dark Wars and associated Jedi Purge through the Force, because she was caught off from it. And she was in the Outer Rim and Unknown Regions, so she wouldn't have necessarily know about it.

This version of Meetra could have run into a disillusioned Jedi who had left the order to escape the purge, and learned of it from him. Given that Atris apparently intentionally drew Meetra out of hiding, maybe Atris had leaked something to this ex-Jedi that put him on a path to find Meetra. Maybe a rumor about someone in the Unknown Regions hiring ex-Jedi or something. The Jedi might have intentionally tracked Meetra down under the false impression that he'd be getting a job.

Or another idea: Atris sends a coded message to an on-the-run Jedi who she knows is loyal to the Order, making it appear that the message could only have come from the Council. The message would be vague, something like "Seek the Wound in the Force in Wild Space, beyond ". All Atris was really after was to lure Meetra back, but the Jedi thought he was on an actual mission. Of course, there's a fight. Maybe more than one.

What was Meetra's state of mind before learning about what had happened with Revan? Depressed? Bitter? Happy to be done with "civilized" space? Maybe Meetra was in a deep funk, getting by on her natural talent but just kind of existing day-to-day. She has a sort of purpose in whatever she was doing for whoever she was working for at the moment. But not a real purpose. Everything she was doing was kind of beneath her. Sort of like Canderous when he was working for Davik on Taris. She could sleepwalk through it all while appearing godlike to her opponents. Learning what had happened was like waking up from a bad dream, and finding out that reality was even worse. But at least she was finally awake and had a real purpose again.

She's pretty furious about a lot of things:
1) the Republic squandered Revan's return and redemption
2) the Jedi surrendered the galaxy to the Sith and essentially abandoned their posts
3) the Council went into hiding

She decides that if none of the institutions that she tried to honorably serve to save and defend the galaxy are worth anything, she'll just do it herself. She figures out (how?) that Darth Revan's attempt to take over the galaxy was in fact his plan to save it. She understands that Revan had to kill Malak, who was trying to dominate and destroy, but that doesn't change the fact that the galaxy is in tatters and needs someone to take control to keep it from falling completely apart. So she picks up Revan's mantle and decides to do it herself.

All this is made even worse because the Jedi kicked her out and the Republic had no place for her, after she was the only person trying to sort out the aftermath from the Mandalorian Wars. Not only did they screw everything up, but they exiled her for trying to stop this disaster from happening. Sure, if she goes back and picks up where Revan left off, some people are going to suffer. But if the galaxy stays on its current path, EVERYONE is going to suffer. The current mess isn't her fault, so neither are the consequences of fixing it. She's able to push off any guilt she feels about her own dark path onto the Jedi and Republic, and justify herself as doing what it necessary for fixing their mistakes.

She figures out pretty quickly that Kreia has some valuable things to teach, especially about how to manipulate people and events to have galaxy-wide impacts. But she also figures out that Kreia is manipulating her for Kreia's own purposes that will ultimately involve a confrontation with the Jedi Council. Meetra decides to meta-manipulate Kreia by playing along, because their goals temporarily match up. But she expects to eventually have to betray Kreia after using her to gather the Council, because Meetra knows she'll probably have to execute the Council. And she knows that, while she'll need Kreia's help to do it, afterward Kreia won't approve. So she expects that, after appearing to agree with Kreia for most of their time together, she'll probably eventually have to kill Kreia. As opposed to Revan, who probably had the strength of will and the personal magnetism to convert Kreia to Revan's ideals.

tl;dr: Meetra tries to fill Revan's shoes, and she's great but she's no Revan. She overcompensates for her shortcomings and goes down a really dark path.

Prolly go Consular => Assassin. This isn't a pure caster, but pure casters kinda suck. And going Sentinel to get skills early leads to a weak caster build. Consular => Assassin get everything as class skills. This offers a Sneak Attack based attack strategy (although it plays okay without it too) while still being a powerful caster. It is a bit weak in the early game, though.

Names:
- Meetra (prolly go with this again)
- Exile
- General

Personality:
- Bitter after being betrayed by institutions she previously served
- Furious that the Jedi and Republic let the galaxy fall apart
- Comfortable with leadership
- Strategic planner. Good at playing the long game. Can accept temporary defeat for ultimate victory.
- Willing to accept risk
- Persistent
- Patient
- Perceptive
- Hard to rattle
- Versatile
- Willing to make sacrifices, even big ones, if needed *cough* Malachor V *cough*
- Not greedy or materialistic, but practical. Not afraid to negotiate, especially with those with plenty
- Good at undercover work, sees nothing wrong with deception for a good cause
- Sees Revan as her true mentor and teacher. Undyingly loyal to him.
- Spent a lot of time with Revan, so some of his personality may have rubbed off on her
- Tired of playing "small ball". Ready to break a few eggs to make an omelet.
- Focused on saving the galaxy as a whole, not each of its individual inhabitants
- Feels that the end is worth the means

Other:
- comfortable with blasters after years on the outer rim, disconnected from the Force
- strong in the Force (once she regains it), prefers it to lightsabers almost as a statement - since hers was taken she enjoys proving she can do just find without it
- charismatic, inspires great loyalty in her followers
- athletic, quick, and nimble but not especially physically strong
- clever, intelligent but not a genius
- unremarkable natural constitution, but expert at using Force to increase endurance
- understands that truly connecting with people brings out their best, so she builds relationships with all her companions based on their individual personalities, not hers. If that's a little false or manipulative - okay. She's trying to accomplish something big, she needs help, and if that means using people, she's fine with that.
- prolly wiser than Revan, but is that really saying all that much?


==========
My Plan:

Note from after playthrough: this build started slow, with limited skills, and initially felt a little weak. But after getting the Sith Assassin class, it really picked up, and by the end of the game was ridiculously overpowered. I was taking out roomfuls of opponents with Insanity+Force Storm, and was untouchable by single targets because I'd just Force Crush them (I guess I got Force Crush when I got Dark Side Mastery? Not 100% sure, but it rocked). Sion barely touched me, and I was able to handle Kreia's floating lightsabers straight up, without any running, by mixing heals and crushes, and a few shields and life support packs.

STR 8
DEX 14
CON 14
INT 14
WIS 14
CHA 14

Put points gained at level-up into CON (to get natural 16, for implants and health), or WIS/CHA (for casting)

Consular class skills: Awareness, Persuade, Repair, Treat Injury
Assassin class skills: everything except Repair and Treat Injury

Consular class skills are retained after switch to Assassin. I'm a little short of feats, so don't take any cross-class feats. Just dump skills into initial class skills until I get the prestige class. Notably, this means I'll have to use companions for Security for quite awhile. Computer Use is needed for upgrading HK-47, so I'll have to wait awhile on that too.

Note that taking Assassin is as much for skills as anything. By the end, it makes up for not starting with Sentinel, even if it does take awhile to kick in.

This is a decent starting skill mix:
4 in Persuade
4 in Repair
2 in Awareness
2 in Treat Injury
1 in Demolitions
1 in Security
It wastes two points on cross-class skills, but allows you to use those skills at least a little for the whole game compared to not training them until Assassin. And you can always try to buff them once you've invested a point.

At level 2, I put 1 point into Stealth and 1 point into Computer Use, which are both cross-class skills, and used all 4 of my skill points for that level-up. That gave me at least 1 point in every skill.

After that, I pushed the 4 consular class skills (awareness, persuade, repair, treat injury) until I got Assassin.

No level cap (well, 50 but that's unattainable) makes it hard to say how many feats/powers I get. Assuming I make it to level 22 (I could realistically get as high as 30, but guessing low to be safe), I get:

Selected Feats: 6 as Consular, 3 as Assassin

I will automatically get:

Consular:
- Armor Proficiency: Light
- Critical Strike
- Flurry
- Power Attack
- Power Blast
- Rapid Shot
- Sniper Shot
- Weapon Proficiency: Pistol
- Weapon Proficiency: Rifle
- Weapon Proficiency: Melee
- Weapon Proficiency: Lightsaber
- Jedi Sense (automatic defense bonus)
- Force Focus (my force powers are harder to save against)
- Jedi Defense (blaster bolt deflection, if lightsaber equipped)
- War Veteran (+25 vitality) (by virtue of being the main character)

At level 2, I automatically got:
- Unarmed Specialist I
- Force Sensitive (+40 Force Points) (by virtue of being the main character)

I may get later at least some of:
Unarmed Specialist II, III, IV (improved hand-to-hand damage)

As a Assassin, I automatically get:
- Greater Prestige Sense
- Sneak Attack I, II, III, and IV

Some good candidates for selected feats:
- Improved Force Focus
- Master Force Focus
- Two-Weapon Fighting
- Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
- Master Two-Weapon Fighting
- Rapid Shot
- Improved Rapid Shot
- Master Rapid Shot
- Close Combat (have to select as Consular)
- Improved Close Combat (have to select as Consular)
- Stealth Run (prolly not, but maybe, depending on how I'm playing)
- Weapon Focus: Blaster Pistol

What I actually selected:
- Two-Weapon Fighting
- Weapon Focus: Blaster Pistol
- Close Combat
- Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
- Master Two-Weapon Fighting
- Improved Close Combat
- Improved Rapid Shot
- Master Rapid Shot

Force Powers: 21 selected powers as Consular, 7 as Assassin, total of 28

Note: Force Deflection (allows Jedi Defense bonus without lightsaber)
Note: I could use a party member as a buffer, so I don't necessarily need all the buffs

I automatically get (as Assassin, no automatic as Consular):
- Force Camouflage

I probably want a good stunning power, so I can do Sneak Attack damage if I choose that path. That's be:
- the "Force Push" line (universal)
- the "Stun Droid" line (light)
- the "Stun" line (light)
- the "Fear" line (dark)
- the "Wound" line (dark) (I think, should confirm this one)
Want to avoid "Force Wave" for sneak attack purposes. Even though it does damage and pushes people back, it lasts half as long as Force Whirlwind. So it is worse for Sneak Attack purposes. Insanity is 18 seconds (vs 12 for Whirlwind) and is a Dark power, so for this version of Meetra, Insanity is clearly the best choice.

Some good candidates for Force powers (some with level requirements):

--- UNIVERSAL POWERS
- Affect Mind (Dominate @ 6)
- Burst of Speed (Knight @ 9, Master @ 15)
- Energy Resistance (Improved @ 9, Master @ 17) Helps against blasters and lightsabers
- Battle Meditation @ 6 (Improved @ 12, Master @ 18)
- Force Deflection @ 6 (Redirection @ 12)
- Force Suppression @ 9 (Breach @ 15)

--- LIGHT POWERS
- Heal @ 6 (Improved @ 12, Master @ 18)
- Force Aura (Shield @ 6, Armor @ 12)
- Force Valor (Knight @ 9, Master @ 15)
- Stun Droid (Disable @ 6, Destroy @ 12)

--- DARK POWERS

Wound (Choke @ 9, Kill @ 12)
Slow (Affliction @ 6, Plague @ 12)
Fear (Horror @ 6, Insanity @ 12)
Shock (Lightning @ 9, Storm @ 18)
Drain Life @ 9 (Death Field @ 18)

That's 41 powers. So I'll be able to take around half of the above candidates (assuming level 22, but even if I get higher, I won't get anywhere close to all of them)

Stuff that seems important:
- Affect/Dominate Mind
- Burst of Speed (at least the base)
- Heal (at least the base)
- Force Deflection
- Fear/Horror/Insanity
- Shock/Lightning/Storm
That's 11 powers, leaving me 10 to pick situationally (and more if I get higher level)

This seems almost essential:
- Force/Knight/Master Valor (attribute bonuses rule)
I could have a party member get it for normal fights, but then I wouldn't have it for boss battles. Guess stims would work for those if I don't take the buff.

What I actually took, in order:
- Force Valor
- Burst of Speed
- Affect Mind
- Shock
- Fear
- Heal
- Dominate Mind
- Horror
- Force Deflection
- Force Lightning
- Knight Valor
- Stun Droid
- Disable Droid
- Insanity
- Destroy Droid
- Slow
- Affliction
- Plague
- Wound
- Choke
- Kill
- Force Storm
- Master Valor
-Force Redirection
-Force Suppression
-Force Breach
- Improved Heal
- Master Heal
- Knight Speed
- Master Speed
- Energy Resistance

Decent strategy from someone's Reddit post:

Plague has a DC (difficulty class) of 100 so it is guaranteed to hit the enemy. It drains the enemy 1 point of every attributes per second (thus lowering the enemy's saves). It also slows the enemy down so you can run away and cast Force Valor (or Force Enlightenment if you are Light side). With Force Valor/Force Enlightenment increasing your WIS and CHA and Plague draining the enemy, your next spells are more likely to hit the enemy.

If you successfully use Choke/Kill on the opponents, they will suffer -4 penalty to CON/DEX/STR

Plague -> Force Enlightenment -> Kill is the best way to fight a strong single enemy.