Rebalanced Force Powers 1.0.0

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic -

Rebalanced Force Powers [K1] v1.0.0

By Timbo

 

Overview

The Force has undergone some dramatic changes in this mod. In the Vanilla game, Force powers are relatively inexpensive regardless of your Force alignment. Rebalanced Force Powers addresses this problem by introducing FP costs that increase as you upgrade the powers and a simplified alignment system that’s specifically designed to complement these scaling changes.

Another major change is that Skills have incorporated into some of the force powers. Awareness now extends the duration of buff spells and Treat Injury increases the potency of healing powers. This mod, alongside it’s companion mod Rebalanced Grenades, should bring some much-needed attention to Kotor 1’s underdeveloped skills system.

The powers themselves have had some important shakeups as well. Many powers had the descriptions corrected, and had their bugs fixed. However, the biggest changes come in the form of nerfing many of the game’s buffs.

Please note that Rebalanced Force Powers is a standalone version of Balance in the Force’s changes to the Force Power system. It contains updated changes that will appear in v2.0 of that mod as well.

 

List of Changes

• Neutral Alignment now covers alignment scores of 40-59 with regards to Force powers.
• Alignments between 0 and 39 and give a 50% FP cost discount with dark side aligned powers and 50% FP cost increase with light side aligned powers.
• Alignments between 60 and 100 and give a 50% FP cost discount with light side aligned powers and 50% FP cost increase with dark side aligned powers.
• Heal, formerly known as Cure, costs 30 FP. It heals 5 + CHA + Treat Injury + level/2.
• Improved Heal, formerly known as Heal, costs 40 FP. It heals 15 + CHA + Treat Injury + level/2 and removes poison.
• Force Enhance, formerly known as Force Aura, costs 20 FP. It adds +2 physical attributes. It lasts 20 + Awareness seconds. It no longer stacks with Stimulants.
• Knight Enhance, formerly known as Force Shield, costs 30 FP. It adds +4 to physical attributes and Immunity: Critical Hits. It lasts 20 + Awareness seconds. It no longer stacks with Stimulants.
• Master Enhance, formerly known as Force Armor, costs 30 FP. It adds +6 physical attributes and adds Immunity: Critical Hits. It lasts 20 + Awareness seconds. It no longer stacks with Stimulants.
• Force mind, formerly known as Force Valor, costs 20 FP, adds +2 to mental attributes. It affects all party members. It lasts 20 + Awareness seconds.
• Knight Mind, formerly known as Knight Valor, costs 30 FP. It adds +4 mental attributes and Immunity: Poison. It affects all party members. It lasts 20 + Awareness seconds.
• Master Mind, formerly known as Master Valor, costs 40 FP. It adds +6 mental attributes and Immunity: Poison. It affects all party members. It lasts 20 + Awareness seconds.
• Stun costs 20 FP.
• Stasis costs 30 FP.
• Stasis Field costs 40 FP.
• Stun Droid costs 10 FP.
• Disable Droid costs 20 FP and it now requires a Fortitude Save as stated in its description.
• Destroy Droid costs 30 FP, adds 1d6(Level) and it now requires a Fortitude Save as stated in its description.
• Force Speed, formerly known as Burst of Speed, costs 20 FP, it doubles movement speed, and it adds +2 to Defense. It lasts 20 + Awareness seconds. It can be used with armor.
• Knight Speed costs 30 FP. It doubles movement speed and adds +5 to Defense. It lasts 20 + Awareness seconds. It no longer stacks with Stimulants. Its prerequisite level has been reduced to 6. It cannot be used with armor.
• Master Speed costs 40 FP, doubles movement speed and adds +5 to Defense. It adds 1 bonus attack per round and a -2 penalty on all attacks. It lasts 20 + Awareness seconds. Its prerequisite level has been reduced to 12. It cannot be used with armor.
• Energy Resistance costs 30 FP. It reduces fire, cold, electrical, and sonic damage by 6. it reduces energy damage by 3. It lasts for 20 + Awareness seconds. It no longer stacks with Energy Shields.
• Improved Energy Resistance costs 40 FP. It reduces fire, cold, electrical, and sonic damage by 12. It reduces energy damage by 6. It affects all party members. It lasts for 20 + Awareness seconds. It no longer provides poison immunity. It no longer stacks with Energy Shields.
• Force Push has had its stun duration fixed. It now actually lasts 3 seconds.
• Force Whirlwind is 20 FP, requires a Fortitude Save, and its description has been corrected to reflect its actual damage and duration.
• Force Wave is 30 FP.
• Force Resistance costs 20 and has a DC of 5 + Defender Level.
• Force Immunity costs 30 FP and has a DC of 10 + Defender Level.
• Force Suppression is 20 FP.
• Force Breach costs 30 FP.
• Lightsaber Throw costs 10 FP.
• Drain Life costs 30 FP.
• Death Field costs 40.
• Fear costs 20 FP.
• Horror costs 30 FP.
• Insanity costs 40 FP.
• Shock costs 20 FP.
• Force Lightning cost 30 FP.
• Force Storm costs 40 FP.
• Slow costs 10 FP.
• Affliction costs 20 FP and its description has been corrected to reflect its actual effects and duration.
• Plague costs 30 FP and its description has been corrected to reflect its actual effects and duration.
• Wound costs 10 FP.
• Choke costs 20 FP.
• Kill costs 30 FP.

 

Acknowledgements

• offthegridmorty’s Treat Injury Affects Force Healing is the forebear to this mod. As far as I know, offthegridmorty is the first person to add skills to Force powers. Not only that, offthegridmorty himself provided feedback and taught me some critical things needed for this mod. Thank you offthegridmorty.
• Thor110 has taught me so much regarding KotOR mods that he pretty much gets a permanent spot in all of my acknowledgements. Thank you Thor110.

 

Compatibility

Rebalanced Force Powers is expressly not compatible with any mods that change the scripting of Force Powers, combat shots, or energy shields. It’s also not compatible with Balance of the Force. It will be included in the next major update of that mod but at the time of this writing, there’s still much work to be done before that happens.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

 

Why do some of these changes feel like nerfs?

That’s because they. Rebalanced Force Powers is actually a piece of a major gameplay overhaul mod called Balance in the Force that rebalances every aspect of the game to make all player options viable and add some challenge to the game. I’ve released it as a standalone mod because even on its own it adds several neat ideas to the game and reduces the overpowered nature of the force power system a little bit. Balance in the Force will actually nerf things a little bit more.

 

What did you do to Aura?

 Force Aura, while also ridiculously powerful, was so redundant that no one used it. So, I tossed it. Fun fact: I added Immunity: Critical Hit so that I could justify keeping those shield icons the same the tier 2 and 3 versions of the power.

 

What did you do to Valor?

Force Valor is tied for most overpowered force power in the game. Providing +5 to all six attributes and Saving Thows is bonkers. So, I split it into two powers called Force Mind and Force Enhance that split the mental and physical attributes between them. I did increase the buffs to +6 as consolation for making them no longer stack with stims. The Balance in the Force version will cap at +4.

 

What did you do to Speed?

Force Speed is the other power tied for most overpowered Force power in the game. Now, at level 1 it only provides double movement speed with no defense bonus. This is a quality-of-life change for armor wearing Jedi who still want to navigate the map quickly. Tier 2 opens up 3 levels earlier at level 6 and adds a bonus defense of 5. This functionally allows it to fully replace force Aura line of spells. Tier 3 opens up 3 levels earlier at level 12 however, instead of getting two extra attacks you only get 1.

 

What did you do to Energy Resistance?

Improved Energy Resistance was an incredibly strong power that served as one of the many ways of making players functionally immortal. In past mods I probably nerfed it too aggressively so in this version. I scaled it to K2’s damage resistance values for cold, electric, fire, and sonic and I reintroduced blaster resistance but at half the value of the other resistances.