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I was just listening to the podcast episode 133 of the Order 66.

I understand that there are inherent differences between SWSE and Pathfinder (i.e. CL vs. CR differences, skill ranks per level, etc.), but what are your thoughts on converting the rules for Battlestations from Galaxy at War to assist in making relevant and balanced adventure locations quickly for Pathfinder games?


As always,
Darth Hubris

It should be fairly portable. One of the strengths across the systems (D6, OCR/RCR, 3.0/3.5, SAGA, PF) is that a DC is a DC is a DC and generally an EL is an EL. Adjust the inner detail mechanics and fluff to the genre of your preference and drive onward.

I applaud you on your ability to think without a box.

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FULONGAMER aka Johannes M. Bowers
http://thelostholocronpodcast.info/
It's not My planet Monkey-boy! / I Waste Him With My Bowcaster!
THIS is my LIGHT-Stick!, The next one of you Furry Tree-Hugger Yub-Yub Primitives EVEN TOUCHES me...//FZOOOK!//

After an initial review of both SW:SE and Pathfinder...

Please note...I am about to cast the spell Wall of Text...scroll to the bottom for questions that I have.

First up, CL vs. CR:

SW:SE has a vastly superior CL system, in my opinion.

In SW:SE, you set the challenge level(CL) of the encounter by adding up all the individual CL's of the components of said encounter. In other words, 3x CL 1 stormtroopers are a CL of 3. And the correlation is one to one for the characters. Those stormtroopers would be an average encounter for a single 3rd level character, or for 3 first level characters.

The Battlestation CL is determined very similarly, but assumes a that for a group of five characers, the battlestation's CL should roughly equal the character's average level, adjusting up or down for tougher or easier adventures.

It's like the metric system for challenge levels/ratings.

Pathfinder, on the other hand, is based off the average party level (APL) of the group. To determine what an average encounter should be, you must first determine this APL, and then you have a number to correlate to the encounters challenge rating (CR). Here is the part where it gets more complicated for translating purposes. The CR of an encounter assumes that you have a party of four or five players. It gets adjusted up for three or fewer players, and down for six or more. So that CL 1 stormtrooper now would effectively be an average challenge for FOUR or FIVE players in Pathfinder...

To translate the mechanics of the Bases and Battlestations chapter then to Pathfinder may be easier than I thought initially. It seems that both systems when discussing Bases and Battlestations assume a group or party of roughly five characters.

Next, the Skill Ranks...
If you look at page 143 of the Galaxy at War (GAW) book (I do not have access to any errata, if you know of any, please let me know) you see a list of difficulty classes (DC) for skill checks within a base or battlestation based upon the CR of said location.

SW:SE skill ratings are based upon the formula: 1d20 + 1/2 your character level + ability modifiers + any miscellaneous modifiers. Being trained in a skill adds +5 here.

So a trained check for a level one character would be: 1d20 + 0 <level 1> +0 <no ability mods> +0 <no misc. mods> +5...or 1d20+5.

Then an untrained check for a level one character would be: 1d20 + 0 <level 1> +0 <no ability mods> +0 <no misc. mods>...or just 1d20.

Pathfinder skill ratings are based upon this formula: 1d20 + skill ranks + modifiers (ability and misc.)

To keep things equivalent, using the above example:
A "trained" check for a level one character, being a skill the character has invested skill ranks in is: 1d20 + 1 <skill ranks> +0 <no ability mods> +0 <no misc. mods>...or 1d20+1.

An "untrained" check for a level one character would be: 1d20 + 1 <skill ranks> +0 <no ability mods> +0 <no misc. mods>...or 1d20.

In Pathfinder, you cannot have more skill ranks in a skill than your hit dice (HD), effectively meaning your character level, though racial HD add some shenanigans.

In my mind this means that accounting for ability modifiers and miscellaneous modifiers being equal, SW:SE adds half your character level, while Pathfinder adds your full character level. This does not account for the SW:SE +5 trained bonus.

Is the table found on page 137 of GAW assuming the DC's for skill checks based upon trained or untrained players? For instance, is and Adventure CL 1 easy check of 13 assuming your are trained (thus having to roll an 8 in our scenario), or untrained (having to roll an 13)?


Questions for those who skipped the wall of text:
1)Anyone know of any place to find errata for the books now?
2)Is the table found on page 137 of GAW assuming the DC's for skill checks based upon trained or untrained players?

EDIT 1:Spelling

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As always,

Darth Hubris

Referencing this post until I find the discussion between the venerable R. Thompson and Co.



Quoted for ease.

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As always,

Darth Hubris

I apologize for the break. I have been working through the table on skill DC's, and converting the DC's from SWSE to Pathfinder. It is taking me longer than initially thought, due to the complexity of the underlying rules of the table.

Thank you for your interest.

I will report back with my findings.

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As always,

Darth Hubris

It has been awhile.

Apologies.

I have been working on my next alchemical invention in the tower...but more on that later.

Link here.

Here is the link for a spreadsheet detailing difficulty classes by challenge rating for strongholds.

The underlying math is not complex, as I originally thought, just tedious. Once again, a great big thanks to AGENT C for making this even possible.

Easy DC: No skill ranks, Heroic NPC Stat Array (15, +2, then every increase by level for abilities)

Medium DC: Max Skill Ranks per level.

Moderate DC: Skill Focus feat.

Hard: Equipment bonuses (+2), Traits (+2), Magic Items (+5 or +10), Feats, and bonuses from other party members or NPCs

Heroic: As above, turn it up to 11.

And...discuss.

I will return shortly for a discussion on the hazards and associated items from the rest of the chapter of GaW shortly.

_________________
As always,

Darth Hubris