Saul Karath (Virtual KotOR)

[gwek]

Admiral Saul Karath
Cost: 37
Faction: Sith
Hit Points: 80
Defense: 17
Attack: 8
Damage: 20

Unique
Affinity (This character may be in an Old Republic squad)
Military Reinforcements 20 (During setup, after seeing your opponent's squad, you can add up to 20 points of non-unique Old Republic characters without a Force rating to your squad)
Soldier (Counts as a character named Old Republic Soldier)

Commander Effect: Fringe characters are not subject to these commander effects. Followers with Pilot gain Soldier and Accurate Shot (Can attack an enemy with cover even if it's not the nearest enemy). Followers without a Force rating gain Evade (When hit by an attack from a nonadjacent enemy, this character takes no damage with a save of 11).



Design Notes

I know there's already a Saul Karath in the database, but this version was designed post-KotOR. He was made to be something of a partner to Carth Onasi, as well as a bit of an "uber-commander" in the vein of Wedge.

The basic stats are in keeping with many of the unique military commander types, although with Cunning Attack+20, he's winds up being a little more effective than many of his peers.

His Affinity, I think, is where he starts to get interesting. Although Karath is in the Sith faction, he's an equally (if not more) effective addition to the Old Republic.

Military Reserves represent the fact that when Karath defected, many soldiers defected with him. In game terms, it allows him to bring a some Old Republic pieces into the Sith faction, which is in keeping with the theme started with Uliq Qel-Droma and continued with Revan's Betrayal.

Karath's Soldier has a few ramifications. It allows him to gain Double Attack from the OR Commander (making the ORComm is nice default "tag-along" via Military Reserves). Although it does not allow him to gain any benefits from the OR Captain (because he's not a follower), he can lend his support to Squad Assault. This will work if he's placed in an Old Republic squad but not in a Sith squad.

Then we come to his commander effects.

Allies with Pilot gain Soldier: This primarily allows Carth Onasi to benefit from the OR Captain's commander effect (as part of the right squad). It also currently gives Soldier to three other pieces: the Cloud Car Pilot, and, oddly, Krayt and Lumiya. Krayt and Lumiya cannot gain any benefits, but the CCP can work with the OR (although he's generally a substandard choice). I wouldn't be surprised to see more unique Fringe Pilots in the future (Dash Rendar, perhaps), who would not be able to benefit from the OR Captain's Squad Assault (as non-Old Rep), but might make for solid support to help boost Carth.

Allies with Deadeye gain Evade: While this can help any number of Fringe pieces (and creates some potentially odd pairings, such as Dengar signing on with the Old Republic or a Mustafarian Flea Rider serving the Sith), I had Carth Onasi and the Sith Troopers in mind when I crafted it, allowing them to stand and deliver much better than they currently can.

Allies with Intuition gain Accurate Shot: Again, this primarily benefits Carth, although it can also help (currently) the Gotal Fringer.

In summation, as part of an Old Republic squad, Karath can help the effectiveness and variety of his soldiers or be Carth's best friend. As an addition to the Sith, he's a competent commander who allows a few extra options, such as the Juggernaut War Droid or Wookiee Elite Warrior.

[Jm419]

Interesting. I see you've thought him through quite a bit.

[gwek]

I'm recreating him from memory from the last site. I got a little feedback on him at that point.

[Sharrakor]

I like him, but I think he may be undercosted. Going by what other people tell me about Reinforcements, without it, he costs 16, which may be to low (probably).

[gwek]

You may be right, although consider that his Reinforcement Options are slightly limited, so I'd cost 'em at maybe 18 instead of 20.

What do you think the price should be? Or should something come off?

[Jm419]

I can see him losing Cunning and raising the damage to 20.

[gwek]

Dropping Cunning will drop the cost and "clean up the card," so how about:

--Cut Cunning Attack
--Raise damage to 20
--Raise cost to 38

He's still priced aggressively, but not as bad. What d'ya think?

[Jm419]

It'd be much better, yeah.

[gwek]

Changes made in the original post. Any more opinions on him?

[Jm419]

That's a big long CE. Is there anything you'd drop?

[gwek]

If I were going to drop anything, it'd be the third part. Although it can, in theory, impact a number of pieces, the Pilot/Soldier aspect is pretty limited (other than Carth, it does very little).

[Jm419]

I just don't think WotC has any triple CE's. There are one or two doubles, but I don't know of any triples.

[gwek]

You're right that WotC doesn't really have triple commander effects... and I'm usually the first to call people on stuff like that!

Think the Intuition/Accurate Shot part should go? (Adum Larp can actually now provide Accurate Shot to the Old Republic).

If I drop the third part, can the cost down down a point or two?

Just an an experiment, I've tried "spacing out" the special abilities to see what it might look like on the card.

Does this look about right?

[Jm419]

Well, if it's going to be redundant, then I'd say drop. However, it's your character - therefore, it's up to you.

[planeswalker459]

The CE is too much.

Commander Effect: Allies with Pilot gain Soldier. Allies with Deadeye gain Evade (When hit by an attack from a nonadjacent enemy, this character takes no damage with a save of 11). Allies with Intuition gain Accurate Shot (Can attack an enemy with cover even if it's not the nearest enemy)

I would do the following to streamline it a little more, yet still keep the integrity of the piece. Try the following:

Commander Effect: Allies with Pilot gain Soldier and Accuarte Shot. Followers gain Evade (When hit by an attack from a nonadjacent enemy, this character takes no damage with a save of 11).

It becomes a 2 part commander effect, Carth Still gains all the bonuses from it, and it helps make all pilots useful.