You Are Not a Jedi Yet
Feature Article

By JD Wiker

“Training to become a Jedi is not an easy challenge. And even if you succeed, it’s a hard life.”
—Qui-Gon Jinn

I am usually the first person to declare that there is no “wrong” way to roleplay a certain kind of character. However, if the emails I get at Jedi Counseling are any indication, some players with Jedi characters seem a little... lost... when it comes to recreating the kind of Jedi behavior we see in the movies, and read about in books and comics.

To put it bluntly, there are a lot of violent, self-centered, reckless Jedi out there—far too many. Sure, it’s hard to create an interesting character that doesn’t have some sort of internal conflict, but in the Rise of the Empire era, Padawans with internal conflict are not allowed to become Jedi Knights. So any Jedi character of 7th-level or higher should no longer be violent, self-centered, reckless, or otherwise display any anti-social tendencies whatsoever. Years of training under a Jedi Master simply weeds out those qualities.

Obviously, recreating the Jedi outlook without such extensive training (or without George Lucas coaching from the director’s chair) is not easy. The Jedi Code (as discussed in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game core rulebook) and their code of conduct (as described in The Power of the Jedi Sourcebook) are good places to start, but many players could still use a little advice.

Think this doesn’t include you, that your portrayal of a Jedi is beyond reproach? Then ask your GM to read this article instead. Ask the non-Jedi players in your group to read it as well. If they do, and they urge you to go ahead and read it anyway, you might just be one of the very players this article was written for.
The Role of Jedi

In every group of heroes, it is usually very clear what the soldier does, what the noble does, what the scoundrel does, and so on. However, it is frequently less clear what the Jedi’s job is in the group, and the Jedi character may begin to feel like an auxiliary to another character. Though this is sometimes uncomfortable to players, Jedi accept it with good grace when necessary, and step forward with their abilities only when it becomes necessary for the welfare of everyone involved. How do you tell the difference?

Leading and Following

The Jedi philosophy on who should lead is very practical: Whoever has the most experience should coordinate the others according to their particular strengths and weaknesses. For example, in The Phantom Menace, Qui-Gon Jinn was perfectly willing to act as leader when he, Obi-Wan, Jar Jar, and Padmé went into Mos Espa. However, when Padmé revealed that she was Queen Amidala, Qui-Gon deferred to her authority, offering advice, rather than issuing commands.

Jedi characters should assume a leadership role only when no one else is entitled, or qualified. When sitting down at the gaming table, each player with a Jedi character should ascertain which character is the highest-level, and act as aide and advisor to that character.

There are exceptions, obviously. If the highest-level character isn’t interested in leading, then it falls to the next highest-level character. Similarly, if the highest-level character is incapable of leading the group, for example, because she’s motivated by greed, or thinks only of her own welfare, then the Jedi should support the next highest-level character as de facto leader. Obviously, if no one of a higher level than the Jedi is inclined to, or capable of leadership, it falls to the Jedi to take that role.

Areas of Expertise

In the same way that a Jedi defers to someone with more experience to lead the group, the Jedi should also defer to other characters when they are more capable or knowledgeable. It’s obvious, when a character has more ranks in the Pilot skill than the Jedi, for example, that the other character should pilot the group’s landspeeder.

However, it’s less obvious when the other character has more ranks in Diplomacy than the Jedi, but the Jedi has more ranks in Affect Mind, who should step forward to negotiate with a non-player character. In such situations, the Jedi character should allow the other character to try first, and only step in if the negotiations stall or break down completely. After all, it’s not as though in the d20 System characters advance their skills by using them, so it’s not necessary to exercise one’s abilities at every opportunity. More importantly, it generates ill will if the Jedi won’t let the non-Force-using characters do anything for themselves.

Responsibility and Consequences

Finally, every Jedi, from a 1st-level Padawan to a 20th-level Master, should be prepared to answer for her actions or inactions, as the case may be. Jedi are, in essence, public servants, like police officers or firefighters, and when they behave recklessly, the public has a right to know why, and what’s being done about it.

It should be absolutely clear that a Jedi should never seek to foist responsibility for a mistake off on someone else, and it should also be clear that a Jedi should recognize everyone involved when things go well. Similarly, a Jedi should seek to avoid negative consequences, and should not be motivated by personal reward. A Jedi’s actions should benefit the group, the public welfare, the Republic, and the Jedi Order, in that order, and the Jedi herself has no place in that hierarchy.

Part and parcel of taking responsibility and accepting consequences is accepting the fact that Jedi are not part of the law enforcement community. At best, Jedi are consultants, and during the Clone Wars, military consultants. Thus, should the rightful authorities attempt to arrest the Jedi, the Jedi should hand over her lightsaber and submit! Resisting arrest only tells the general public that Jedi consider themselves above the law, which is not the attitude that the Jedi Order wants to present to the galaxy at large.

On the other hand, the definition of “rightful authorities” varies from place to place. Obviously, surrendering to the authority of the Cularin Sector police, who are the local representatives of the Republic Guard, is a wise choice, while surrendering to the authority of the Hutts is decidedly unwise. There are many shades of gray in between, and every Jedi should be aware of the consequences of arrest (and resisting arrest) before handing over one’s lightsaber... or igniting it.
Using the Force

Something that seems to escape many new players with Jedi characters is that the connection between Force-users and Vitality Points was intentional. Yes, it represents the physical and mental exertion of bending the Force to one’s will, but it also keeps Jedi from using the Force unnecessarily. A soldier who knew he might be going into battle certainly wouldn’t fire off most of the ammunition in his blaster rifle first. By the same token, a smart Jedi doesn’t waste Vitality Points he might need in another minute.

This concept goes back to “Areas of Expertise”: Why spend Vitality Points when someone else can do the job just as well, and not spend Vitality Points?

Force Points and the Dark Side

The same general thinking applies to spending Force Points. My simple advice to everyone is this: Treat every Force Point as though it was your character’s last. Don’t waste them on trivial pursuits; save them for when it’s absolutely vital that you have one to spend. On the other hand, don’t be miserly with them: If the situation calls for spending a Force Point, then by all means, spend it.

A similar rule applies to Dark Side Points: Treat every DSP you get as though it was going to push you over the limit and turn you into a dark side character. That doesn’t mean that you should obsess about them and argue with the GM if she gives your character a DSP. However, it does mean that you should watch your character’s behavior, and be prepared to drop the kind of anti-social roleplaying that makes Dark Side Points so easy to pick up.
Jedi in Combat

A seeming paradox in Jedi protocol relates to the commencement of combat: Should a Jedi get a Dark Side Point for striking first in a combat? In general, no. If combat is inevitable, the Jedi is merely seeking to end the conflict as quickly as possible.

But then ask a follow-up question: So, it’s okay for a Jedi to strike first in combat? Again, in general, no, but it’s not worth a Dark Side Point if he does. The reason a Jedi shouldn’t strike first in combat is that, whenever combat begins, lives are in danger, and probably about half of them are the lives of the Jedi’s companions. If the Jedi strikes before his companions are prepared to, he risks their lives without their permission. It’s both tactically and morally a bad idea.

Jedi Combat Tactics

To make the most of fighting “the Jedi way,” players with Jedi characters should take some time learning what their options in combat are, beyond simply rolling attacks and damage. The Jedi’s favorite maneuvers in combat should be Total Defense, Fight Defensively, Disarm, Trip, and Attack an Object. As well, when it comes to initiative, Jedi should strive to take full advantage of the Ready action.

Total Defense: When we were redesigning the Deflect Blasters feat to be a special ability of the Jedi, we wanted to encourage Jedi to make a choice between attacking and deflecting blaster shots. Hence, the dodge bonus for using Deflect (defense); it works fine on its own, or combined with the Jedi’s Dexterity bonus, but it works especially well when the Jedi chooses to use the Total Defense action. The Jedi can still make a single move each round, or otherwise take a move action, and gains a +4 dodge bonus to her Defense, on top of whatever her bonus for Deflect amounts to. Add in the various Lightsaber Defense feats. All of which, again, provide a dodge bonus to Defense, and a Jedi who doesn’t want to be hit by blaster shots can essentially stand unscathed in the midst of otherwise withering blaster fire.

Fight Defensively: Of course, a character using Total Defense can’t attack, so when a Jedi needs to participate in the combat more actively, the next best option is Fighting Defensively. A character fighting defensively gains a +2 dodge bonus to Defense, on top of bonuses for class, Dexterity, and the Lightsaber Defense feats, but suffers a –4 penalty to attack rolls. So in addition to being a generally good tactic against multiple foes, especially those who are relatively easy to hit, it can add up almost as well as the Total Defense option when battling opponents with blasters.

Disarm: If you’ve not done so before, take a moment to look over the Disarm rules on page 169 of the revised core rulebook. On the surface, the prospect of losing your lightsaber should you fail to disarm your opponent makes a good argument against using this tactic. Certainly, the Improved Disarm feat removes this danger, but more to the point, this danger is completely nonexistent when you face an opponent armed with a ranged weapon, and most opponents in Star Wars are. So, in practice, what you are looking at with the Disarm attack is an easy way to discourage an opponent from continuing the fight. Even though his weapon has only fallen to his feet, he risks an attack of opportunity by reaching down to pick it up.

As easy as it is to pull weapons from opponents’ hands using Move Object, it’s much, much easier to hurl the weapons out of their reach when the weapon is just lying on the ground. It’s only a move action to do so, meaning that you can disarm first, then Move Object as your next action in the round. Under the right circumstances, this can be a tremendous incentive for an opponent to flee or surrender, all without making a single damage roll.

Trip: Although Trip attacks suffer from the same general drawback as Disarm attempts (your opponent might trip you instead), the benefit of getting an opponent prone is difficult to pass up. At the very least, the opponent has to waste a move action to stand up, but more importantly, he’s almost certainly lying at the feet of a Jedi, who is now getting a +4 bonus on lightsaber attack rolls against him, which is often enough to take the fight out of an opponent.

The risk of being tripped yourself makes this maneuver one to be used carefully. Obviously, a Jedi with a high Strength score (and perhaps Large size) is in a good position to use Trip, especially against smaller foes with lower Strength and Dexterity scores. Otherwise, you should be very aware of the consequences of failing, beyond simply being prone within an enemy’s reach.

Attack an Object: Frankly, this should be the first attack a Jedi should attempt against non-Jedi opponents within melee range. As a Jedi’s lightsaber ignores the damage reduction of objects, few weapons can withstand even a single strike. The object’s Defense, when held by an opponent, can be a little daunting, but against lower-level characters with correspondingly lower class bonuses to Defense, the tactic is extremely effective. Unlike Disarm and Trip, Attack an Object does not generate an attack of opportunity, or give the opponent a chance to retaliate on a failed attempt.

Ready: Right after Attack an Object, the Ready action is about the best tactic for a Jedi who doesn’t want to shed blood unnecessarily. Simply put, a Jedi can ready an action to attack a foe who takes a hostile action, or better yet, to attack the weapon of a foe who takes a hostile action. Not only does this mean that the foe most likely won’t get a chance to attack, but that the Jedi has waited until the foe was clearly attacking before she herself struck a blow.
GMing Jedi

“A Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.”
—Yoda

The quote above is probably the single-most misunderstood quote in Star Wars. On the surface, it implies that a Jedi should never strike a blow, but the message of the scene in which this dialogue takes place is that one should engage in combat without anger, fear, or aggression. Let’s face it, Jedi, from the lowliest Padawan right up to Jedi Master Mace Windu, can and do take lives. If they all got Dark Side Points every time they killed someone, the galaxy would be full of some very tainted Jedi, and if they all got DSPs every time they participated in a battle, the Clone Wars would have turned every last one of them into darksiders.

Plainly though, that didn’t happen. So how often, realistically, should a GM hand out Dark Side Points?

Giving Out Dark Side Points

Remember that an excess of Dark Side Points creates a profound change in Jedi characters; they become dark side characters. By giving them out too generously, you create a situation in which the player no longer cares how un-Jedi-like his character’s behavior gets; he has nothing further to lose.

Obviously, you should give out DSPs when a character uses a Force Point to call upon the dark side, or uses a dark side Force-based skill or feat—no question there. The discussion of “Dark Side Transgressions” in Chapter 9: The Force in the revised core rulebook is meant to give the GM a clear guide to when you should hand out Dark Side Points for evil acts.

However, some GMs have a hard time deciding when a common transgression is worth a DSP, so try this system. Every character is allowed three “strikes” before getting a Dark Side Point. A minor transgression is worth one strike, a common transgression is worth two, and a major transgression is worth three (an automatic Dark Side Point). Keep track of each player’s total throughout the course of the adventure, but wipe the slate clean when the adventure is over.

Assigning Consequences

Of course, Dark Side Points might not mean a lot to a player whose character is just being contrary, rather than evil. After all, it’s not worth a DSP to be disrespectful to authority figures, or to strike first in a combat situation, or to use the Force when it’s not necessary to do so. However, such actions should have some consequences.

For Living Force campaign games, the first level of consequence for a Jedi’s poor behavior should be increased attention from law enforcement. Obviously, this doesn’t affect the group much if they’re out in the wilds, and it shouldn’t, but the local law enforcement should show up much more quickly than normal if the Jedi and her group are at the center of a disturbance in a civilized area, and once things have calmed down, the police should inform the Jedi that they are obliged to file a report with the Jedi Academy on Almas; in other words, they’re telling Lanius Qel-Bertuk.

As a second consequence, the Jedi character is taken away for about a half an hour (effectively causing her to miss out on part of the adventure), while the authorities discuss the Jedi’s behavior with the Almas Academy. It is up to the rest of the group to decide whether their characters wait for the Jedi to rejoin them, but they are not required to do so, especially since it might mean that they lose precious adventuring time.

If that’s not enough to convince the Jedi character’s player that perhaps he should tone down his behavior, strong censure from the Almas Academy should do the trick; the character cannot progress as a Jedi until she learns to behave more responsibly. The Academy takes away her lightsaber, and she has to perform a suitably heroic act, much like gaining a Force Point, to convince the Academy to lift their punishment. Obviously, this last response is a bit extreme, and should only be used in rare cases.