Pistoleer Archive

Alrighty. I'm a master entertainer and master musician. Way, way, way back when I decided my main would be an entertainer who'd also bea great fighter. Kinda like a non-cross dressing version of Lancer/Yellow Dancer from Mospeada (Robotech Invid Invasion). I also kinda like iconic Star Wars. Melee combat as a first option, outside ofJediwith lightsabers,is not iconic Star Wars for me. To me, melee should be a backup when your blaster doesn't work for whatever reason. So in SWG, that leaves carbines, rifles and pistols. Well, to me, that blaster pistol is the most iconic, and also makes the most sense for a musician. He could hide a blaster in the folds of his clothes, or in his ommni box.

BeforeI continue, I'm just talking about speed, accuracy and specials. Obviously dodge and defenses stack from all professions, hell, I evenget a little melee and ranged defense from Master Music!

Anyways, with master ent/music I can master Pistoleer and pick up ranged support IV in the marksman prof and have 4 skill points left over. However, we all know that just mastering Pistoleer isn't enough to make you the best at using pistols. Now, granted you can get the speed and accuracy increases from skill tapes, but to get better at using pistols you need BH Pistols (not to mention finding skill tapes can be difficult and VERY expensive and looting them VERY time consuming). This also gives you some new specials to use. Same thing with Smuggler, this gives you some lovely specials to use.

Now, if I chose carbines instead, I'd have the same problem with needing BH. I don't know the current numbers, but carbine speed is even lower than ours at equivalent masters, so I'd assume picking up BH carbines is a must for them (aside from getting skill tapes.)

Now, if I chose rifles as my ranged profession... well, that's all I'd need for rifle skills. Only skill box that makes rifles better is Master Marksman.

If I chose any melee profession, well, that all I'd need for that melee profession. Only Master Brawler would add to accuracy, speed, toughness, damage, center of being, etc.

I'm completely OK with mastering the basic profession to give an extra bonuses to the elite combat professions. It works that way for ALL of them.

I'm completely not OK with BH giving bonuses to pistols and carbines and not the other combat professions. I'm not OK with Smuggler giving only pistols new moves.

Now, I think the BH problem could be fixed rather easily in two possible ways. First, remove the BH carbine and BH pistol branches. Replace with a Combat Branch and a Scatter Pistol Branch. The combat branch would require Combat XP to advance. The branch would give general ranged skills and general ranged specials (precedence for this is the Ranged Support branch in Basic Marksman.) These general skills would not include speed and accuracyincreases, but includeaiming, damage, and possibly a bonus to hit humanoids (think Creature To Hit bonus from Scout/Ranger.) The ranged mitigation would be moved to this branch. This branch would include ranged and melee defenses (again, like RS branch in Marksman.) The Scatter Pistol would be a special weapon like the Lightning Cannon. Pistoleer speed/accuracy/specials would not affect it. Scatter Pistol speed/accuracy/specials would not affect regular pistols. (Along the same token, the Launcher Pistol from Commando should work like the other Commando weapons.)

What this would do is make the BH a profession that adds general ranged bonuses making any ranged combatant better through the general ranged skills. It also makes the Scatter Pistol a special weapon that is only truely useful in the hands of a master BH.

Smuggler would get a similar pass. First, remove the unarmed pre-req and replace with the either the Engineering branch of Artisan or the Domestic Arts branch of artisan. Either pre-req makes sense because Smugglers slice (engineering) and make spices (domestic arts, of a sort anyways.) This is done because Smuggler provides NO bonuses to unarmed combat, so why in the world should unarmed be a pre-req??? Next, replace the pistol branch pre-req with the Ranged Support branch. Then change the Dirty Fighting XP requirements to Combat XP requirements (and divide by 10 as Combat XP comes in 10 times slower.) Then make the special moves in Dirty Fighting to be generic special moves that work with carbines, rifles, and pistols.

What this does is make the Smuggler a profession that adds general special moves to any ranged profession in addition to being able to slice, make spices, and smuggle things (well, if there was anything to actually smuggle that is.)

Overall, this would eliminate the inconsistencies with gaining skill with a pistol vs a carbine vs every other combat profession. This would put the ranged professions on even ground with one another. This makes me happy as a Master Pistoleer only, knowing I'm as fast and accurateas the next pistoleer out there, but also knowing I don't have extra goodies (aiming, defense, specials)that a BH or Smuggler with Master Pistoleer (orMaster Carbineeror Master Rifleman)has.

What this would do is open up a can of worms with is the melee profs. They don't have any hybrid profs that help them out. So I'd suggest making a Master of Arms profession (or something) that would work sorta like bounty hunter for pre-reqs. Master Brawler and some other pre-req (a branch from another basic profession). It would have 2 new melee weapon branches (like the lightning cannon and my scatter pistol branch), a general melee branch (like my general ranged branch idea for BH) and a branch that's sure to tick off about 95% of the SWG playerbase... Meditation. Yup, rip that sucker out of TKA and put it in a hybrid profession. The 4 branches in TKA should be like the 4 branches in the other three melee profs. This would balance TK with the other melee professions, give melee professions something to bolster them like my idea the BH profession bolstering the ranged professions, and still have the meditation skills available to brawlers.

There, I'm done. None of this will ever happen, but I can always dream and pray I loot some nice skill tapes, because I definitely can't afford to buy +25 worth of pistol speeds.

Starsider: Abici Sselof, Master Entertainer, Musician and Pistoleer; Master Pilot

You you get some extras by stacking pistoleer skills +bh 0040 etc.. still those extra cost you master marksman, novice scout and scout 4000.. so... you get a boost by investing a good number of skill points.... something that looks kind of fair to me....

your idea isn't bad, but... well. how do i say this... SWG is a skill based game, where skills are supposed to stack . I don't see any harm in rifleman not being stacked by BH skills, for a single reason.. rifleman is , atm, a pretty completed profession. After mastering marksman and rifleman, you're almost speed capped and have basicly all kind of specials for every situation. What you lack in dots is basicly compensated by what you gain in ap3 .

_________________________
Darkness & Shade are the burden;
Sweat, Pain, Blood & Tears tools that forged the mind,
within a soul countless times scoorched by Niquel & Lies.
And yet I continue to Breathe, Rise, Feel & Fall.

Good ideas. I like how you removed the speed/accuracy mods from BH and Smuggler (which had none anyways) and replaced them with general ranged specials.

That is like my idea, except I think that smuggler specials should be aimed at "evasion" and BH should have "ensnaring" specials.

Kevlar, I like your reply. It kinda reinforces my frustrations. You're right in that rifles seem "complete" and that pistols (and carbines) seem to need other professions to feel balanced to rifles. You're definitely right in that there is a significant skill point investment to get the bonuses from BH. That's my frustration; pistols have to spend extra skill points to feel balanced to rifles. That shouldn't be the case. Master pistoleer should be balanced to master rifleman and master carbineer. Bounty Hunters should be able to choose any of the 3 ranged professions as their combat focus, and have bonuses applied.

Ternque, I agree with your specials ideas. I hadn't really thought about what the generic ranged specials should be, but I like the focus that you put in each profession.

It'd be nice if the CURB addressed this pistoleer dependency on the hybrid professions, but I kinda doubt it. We'll see though.

Starsider: Abici Sselof, Master Entertainer, Musician and Pistoleer; Master Pilot

The solution i defend is to give more speed and accuracy to pistoleer. After that, if anyone wants to go the bh path, he does it because he wants extra firepower and offensive skills, not becauseof the need of speed and accuracy from BH line.

_________________________
Darkness & Shade are the burden;
Sweat, Pain, Blood & Tears tools that forged the mind,
within a soul countless times scoorched by Niquel & Lies.
And yet I continue to Breathe, Rise, Feel & Fall.

BH Carbine and Pistol skills should complement Pistoleer skills, not overshadow them.

A Bounty Hunter may have some pistol accuracy/speed mods (+10-20 each) and some different specialsthat would make him a better pistoleer if he already had M.Pistoleer, but should still require Pistoleer to utilize his pistols to their fullest potential.

As it currently stands, a 0040 Bounty Hunter is a better Pistoleer than a Master Pistoleer, and that's just wrong. A BH + MP should be better than a MP on his own, no doubt, but not so much as to dominate.

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"I've got black magic, a hair trigger, and a short fuse. Bring it!"
-Black Mage