Animal Bond & Improved - (F-CRB; 138-139, SS; 30)
Animal Bond has the problem that the Force Rating restriction scales in a fairly disappointing way. Many, if not most, of the Pathfinder and Hermit players will want to have their “forever pet” from character generation, and likely keep it throughout their play-time, which the RAW version just doesn’t provide for.
Animal Bond now has the restriction for the Silhouette of your bonded animal set to “Force Rating -1 (At a Minimum of 1).” This allows the characters to gain access to Silhouette 1 animals from an early period in the meta-campaign, and even a Baby Silhouette 2 if they so choose.
Improved Animal Bond now reads “When spending a maneuver to direct a bonded animal, the character may suffer 1 strain to add [Boost] equal to Force Rating to the animal's next check.”
Channel Agony - (UP; 32)
Channel Agony is being brought in line with other Conflict talents, including ranked Conflict talents like Embrace Your Hate. Rather than suffer 1 conflict per rank per session, it is a flat 1 conflict per session.
Comprehend Technology - (F-CRB; 141)
Comprehend technology is a powerful, potentially encounter-defining talent. But the action economy involved makes it difficult to incorporate before the fun is over. To encourage use, Comprehend technology now takes a Maneuver instead of an Action to perform.
Note: Players should remember that the scope of gear referred to in the talent’s text is expansive rather than exclusive. Items in a scene do not need an explicit statblock to benefit. Personal gear is a broad category by definition.
Defensive Slicing - (F-CRB; 141)
Defensive slicing is a complicated niche to work within a session, and to keep in the spirit of the talent, it will now provide bonuses to checks that involve actively opposed efforts within computer systems in addition to its base functions. The Talent now reads as follows:
“When attempting to defend a computer system against intrusion (or when an opponent attempts to slice a computer owned or programmed by the character), the character add ■ per rank of Defensive Slicing. When Attempting to evict intruders, bypass actively operated computer systems, or otherwise overcome the work of an active character acting as opposition within a system, the character adds a Boost die to computer checks per rank of Defensive Slicing.”
Note: “Owned or Programmed” shall include but is not limited to the following instances:
- Modifying an existing “computer” attachment for an item or vehicle
- Building an item that is explicitly a computer
- Programming a droid
- Owning any items that are explicitly computers
- Assisting in purchasing any items that are explicitly computers
- Owning a vehicle
Disorient - (E-CRB;135)
The talent has an unfavorable interaction with weapons already having the quality. To improve the talent’s usability, it will now read:
“After hitting with a combat check, the character may spend (2x Advantage) to disorient his foe (see page 218 of the Edge-CRB). Disoriented targets add ■ to all skill checks. The target is disoriented for a number of rounds equal to the attacker’s ranks in Disorient, plus a number of rounds equal to the Disorient quality on any weapon that successfully hits the target as a part of this attack.”
Force Assault and Push/Pull - (F-CRB; 143)
Force Assault should give the character the opportunity to use either Move or Push/Pull since those are similar powers which either effect objects (Move) or people (Push/Pull). As such, the Force Assault Talent is modified as below (added words in bold):
Force talent. Upon missing an opponent with a Lightsaber (Willpower) combat check, the character may spend a triumph result or three advantage results to perform a Move or Push/Pull Force power action as a maneuver this turn (the character must still be able to perform maneuvers and still may not perform more than two maneuvers in a turn).
The character must have already purchased the Move or Push/Pull Force power to use it as part of this ability.
Hard-Headed - (KoF; 30)
Hard-Headed is being buffed from requiring an action to requiring a maneuver. It now reads:
“On any turn in which the character is staggered or disoriented, he may perform the Hard Headed Maneuver. He makes a Daunting ( ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ) Discipline check If he succeeds, he is no longer staggered or disoriented. The difficulty of this check decreases by one per additional rank of Hard Headed, to a minimum of Easy (♦)”
Jury Rigged - (A-CRB; 150)
One of the most dangerous combinations in the entirety of SWRPG is the intersection of Jury Rigged and Autofire. For this reason JONE will not allow Jury Rigged to be applied to the Autofire quality.
Knowledge is Power - (F-CRB; 146)
In an attempt to allow this talent to be impactful throughout the life of the character, this talent now reads: “Force talent. Once per session, when making a single check, the character may increase their Force rating by a number equal to half their ranks in Knowledge (Lore), rounded up.”
As a reminder, a character’s Force rating may not be increased above 7 by this talent.
Knowledge is Strength - (CotR; 31)
While there is no change to this talent, in recognition of its status as a Conflict Talent and its high XP cost, Knowledge is Strength is not subject to the Force rating cap and is the only means by which a character may temporarily increase their Force rating above 7.
Parry & Reflect - (F-CRB; 149,150)
In the interest of stymying one of the more problematic aspects of Lightsaber Combat, both the Parry Talent and the Reflect Talent will be capped at 5 Ranks respectively. Any additional ranks may be skipped on Specialization Trees as if they were duplicates of any already-purchased unranked talent, as is detailed on Force and Destiny Core Rulebook p. 136. See further below for specific changes for the Reflect talent.
Note: Items that treat Ranks of Parry or Reflect as higher than actual ranks can be used to exceed this cap by 1 but will not stack.
Improved Parry & Reflect may trigger against missed attacks, provided the roll still generates the appropriate amount of Threat or Despair. Characters may not Parry strikes from Improved Parry, and may not Reflect hits from Improved Reflect.
Positive Spin and Improved - (DA; 34)
Since Duty and contribution are tracked as a collective rather than at an individual level, Duty cannot trigger normally. As such, the RAW version of Improved Positive Spin does not work in JONE. As such, in order to allow this niche talent to still be usable, Improved Positive Spin now reads "At the end of a session, if a PC's Duty has not increased, the character may perform the Improved Positive Spin action by making a Daunting difficulty Charm check with the difficulty decreased once per rank of Positive Spin. If the character succeeds, one other chosen PC's Duty increases by 1. This effect does not stack with Positive Spin. When the Propagandist does this, the player must explain what event they engineered to highlight their comrade's contributions to the cause."
As a note, while there is no change to base Positive Spin, we are capping the maximum contribution to the Jedi Duty at 10 for a single session. This allows Positive Spin to still be incredibly impactful while still managing the speed of Contribution Rewards in the metacampaign. There is only so much even the best spin can do to increase the galaxy's view of the Jedi from a single mission and reaching a Contribution Rank should still feel notable.
Reflect and Certain Weapon Types - (F-CRB; 150)
The RAW wording of the Reflect talent allows a character to reflect with any weapon which uses the Lightsaber skill, including non-energy blade weapons. It is our opinion that reflecting should be one of the special attributes of the traditional lightsaber and other specially noted pieces of gear, such as the Shield Gauntlet. As such, we are rewording the Reflect talent to the following: Force talent. When the character suffers a hit from a Ranged (Light), Ranged (Heavy), or Gunnery combat check, and after damage is calculated (but before soak is applied, so immediately after step 3 of Perform a Combat Check) they may take the Reflect incidental. They suffer 3 strain and reduce the damage dealt by a number equal to 2 plus their ranks in Reflect. This talent may only be used once per hit and when the character is wielding a lightsaber.
Sarlacc Sweep (FnD; 151)
In an attempt to bring this capstone more in line with other saber capstones, the talent now reads as follows: "Force talent. The character may take the Sarlacc Sweep action, making a Lightsaber combat check with +1 difficulty against one engaged target and adding Force dice no greater than Force rating to the pool. The character may spend a force point or two advantage results generated by this combat check to hit one additional target [they] are engaged with. [They] may do this once per engaged target, paying a force point or two advantage results for each additional hit.
When performing a Sarlacc Sweep action, the character must always target the opponent with the highest difficulty and highest defense (if two targets have the same difficulty and defense, the GM chooses which target is the initial target)."
Survival of the Fittest - (SS; )
In an attempt to bring this talent in line with Knowledge is Strength, this talent now reads: “Force talent. Once per session, when making a single check, the character may increase their Force rating by a number equal to half their ranks in Survival, rounded up.”
As a reminder, a character’s Force rating may not be increased above 7 by this talent.
Technical Aptitude - (F-CRB; 153)
This talent now reads: “The character reduces the amount of time needed to complete computer-related tasks by 25% and adds a boost to slicing related actions per rank. Time cannot be reduced by greater than 50%.”
True Aim - (A-CRB; 158)
To bring the maneuver and strain economy of True Aim in line with Frenzied Attack, a comparable skill for melee combat, True Aim will be changed to read as the following:
“Once per round, before the character makes a ranged attack, he may perform a True Aim maneuver and suffer a number of strain no greater than ranks in True Aim. The character gains all the benefits for aiming and also upgrades his next ranged attack roll a number of times equal to the strain suffered by the character.”