Darth Frog

You can teleport your sidekicks to the scene of battle by taking a few steps away from it. I found that out by accident during a 'normal' playthrough where I had sent stealthed Visas ahead to scout.

Would you need to take it out with a Holy Hand Grenade? If so, would that be considered DS? Well, if the resurrection point is beyond the ravenous obstacle then blowing yourself up mightn't be such a bad idea after all. :D I remember that in Freelancer people used to crash their ship into the nearest planet in order to return to base quickly ... And I don't know why you need to ask about the alignment shift, even a child could work that out. If you're LS then you get a DSP for attacking yourself since you were clearly not acting in self-defense by any stretch of the imagination; if you're DS then you get an LSP for giving your life to rid the world of a bad mofo. "

Well, the 'right' difficulty is in the eye of the beholder - that is why games have different difficulty settings. Both the original KotOR and NWN hit the sweet spot for me going solo on 'difficult'. But KotOR 2 on 'difficult' is like 'Tourist' mode in Serious Sam. And this has nothing to do with d20.

In a few cases this may be a solution, but not in others (e.g. mercs in Ithorian compound - unless the games gives you an option to have the ruffians carted away by the TSF). Be that as it may, I have heard that D&D Online will implement such a system. For example, if your path is blocked by a Ferocious Gizka then you get a set amount of XP for getting past it in any way you choose - cloak and sneak past, stun and run, or feed it Hanharr with peppers and wait until the beast goes looking for a quiet spot where it can throw up without a couple of nosy adventurers ogling.

It's the other way round. The Assassin combines the spell casting abilities of the Marauder with the 'melee prowess' of a Sith Lord. The minuscule FP advantage of the Assassin over the Marauder is so small as makes no odds; the thing that's needed (and which only Consular-type classes get) is Force DC to make spells stick against non-grunts, and extra spell damage can also be useful. 6-36 extra Sneak Attack damage may look like a lot but it isn't: - it applies only if enemies are stunned or surprised (or for the first round in a scuffle if you have Force Jump), so you don't get it when you need it the most - Weapon Masters and Marauders get the Juyo form which adds an extra attack without any preconditions, for an extra 60-80 damage per round (depending on build). Class feats give another +8 dmg per attack for +48 per combat round, so even a middling Marauder does the same damage all the time that an Assassin does in a Sneak Attack round; alignment mastery and Fury add even more damage. Face it, Assassins got a raw deal. The Sneak Attack damage bonus should have been turned into a multiplier-type bonus like that for crits (or at least doubled compared to what it is now), the Assassin should have gotten an ability like HiPS (Hide in Plain Sight) in NWN, and the combat scenes should have been staged to make the Assassin's abilities attractive.

Well, I could have posted 18+8/12/16/8/8/8 (melee) 14+3/8/14+4/15+1/14/12 (melee, beat all skill checks) 8/18+?/8/8/16+?/12 male (mageish turtle) 8/15+?/14/8/16+?/14 male (turtlish mage) Each of those would be perfect in some sense and not in others. There is no 'best' config for any purpose, just plenty of trade-offs. I see little value in posting concrete recipes without the reasoning behind it ... Everybody has to decide for themselves which combination of trade-offs they find most pleasing. And for an informed decision you need to know a little about pros and cons.

What are you smoking? A Guardian/Marauder kills enemies way faster than any other class combo and dead enemies don't do damage. Moreover, a decent Guardian/Marauder owns the opposition the whole time from Peragus to Malachor, while Consular-type characters take quite a while to 'bloom' - they are only efficient during the second half of the campaign. Remember, even a Guardian/Marauder gets enough powers to master the Stasis/Insanity/Storm chains in addition to all Force buffs and Heal (for emergencies/mishaps). I've played several melee fighters on 'difficult' (Guardian/Weapon Master and Guardian/Marauder) and never needed a single medpack. Even Heal was needed only rarely, if I made tactical blunders.

Not really. A turtle takes hardly any damage and so there is no urge to dispatch enemies quickly, but you cannot really call something a 'melee character' if the melee damage output is on the same level as that of a pure-bred spell caster like a Consular/Jedi Master. Despite the insanely powerful upgrades and booster items (and not to forget some of the new feats and lightsabre forms), roughly one third of the damage output for a high-damage melee build is still from STR, like in the original KotOR. Guardian-type classes (Guardian, Weapon Master, Marauder) with Dark Side mastery get a good damage bonus and so the relative proportion of the STR bonus may be a bit less than one third for them. One third is not a whole lot but enemy stats are what they are, and so only a dedicated high-damage, low-AC melee build will be able to get single-round kills reliably throughout the whole campaign, from Peragus to Malachor. A more balanced build that trades some STR for WIS/CHA (Force DC) and/or INT (for skill/attribute checks) will achieve mostly the same effect but there will be times where single-round kills cannot be achieved reliably. That is, it can happen that you need two rounds for an enemy if you roll an automatic miss or get a bunch of low damage rolls (or no criticals, if you are a 'critter' :D ). This is for non-bosses. Some of the bosses still go down in a single round (sleeps-with-vibros, Greater Storm Beast ...) but most take two, and there are special grunts that have no teeth but plenty of VP and these can take even more rounds. I think the fattest is Colonel <willyoudiealready> on the Ravager, who has about 2000 vitality and takes four rounds to cut down. There are also occasional Cannoks and Sith Assassins that seem to have more than double the normal VP and thus take two rounds. DEX builds can still get plenty of single-round kills, especially on lucky rolls with critical damage. But they don't get single-round kills reliably, except against the lowliest grunts that are served en masse (e.g. Jekk'Jekk Tarr, Trayus Academy) and which even a flat-out melee fighter with the lowest possible WIS/CHA will dispatch with area spells anyway instead of slaughtering each one individually and personally. On the other hand, a 'full' DEX build is a turtle and thus untouchable; unlike low-AC builds they have no pressing reason to dispatch enemies quickly. Natural attributes and feat selection do matter during the early game, until you hit level 15 or so and get all the master powers (and phat lewt). You almost always have a party with you and so you can muddle through in any case, but it is more fun if you have an able build who can pull her weight. And then there's the sparring in the, errm, polar region on Telos which holds the one true test for the fighting abilities of your character; for melee fighters the moment of truth is the last round, for squishy types like Consulars it is in the earlier restricted rounds. The Battle Circle in the Dxun camp serves the same purpose to a lesser degree. During the late game a good part of the 'build' is in equipment selection as you said. For example, you can turn a decent STR build into a somewhat decent DEX build and vice versa simply by switching some equipment around. However, the results are 'only' serviceable but not completely convincing insofar as bosses can still breach the defense of the of the ex-damage-dealer turtle on high attack rolls, and if the dice aren't smiling upon the ex-turtle damage dealer then she may need more than one combat round for enemies like sleeps-with-vibroblades. Also, class selection is somewhat important. Guardian and the fighter-style prestige classes have an extra edge in melee combat, from selectable feats, class bonus feats and class-specific lightsabre forms (Juyo), and alignment mastery bonus (STR for LS, extra damage for DS); Marauders get an extra edge on top of that with Fury (w00t :D). For Consulars and mage-style prestige classes it is similar with regard to spell-casting, with the most important thing being enhanced Force DC to make powers stick. I think a good plan would be to pick a theme for the Exile - like 'turtle' - and to select class, attributes and feats such that the key ability is emphasized and the rest rounded out a little. The key attribute(s) for the build should probably be set to somewhere between 16 and 18, followed by hearty 14s for the supporting attributes and disdainful 8s for the rest. Setting the primary attribute to 18 can be somewhat tricky because it is rather expensive in terms of creation points and thus can easily lead to a stunted character; however, in this game it is the way to go if you have already learned the ropes and want to explore what it feels like to be a really good fighter or a really squishy spell caster. :D The class choices for pure-bred melee fighters and for master Force users are self-evident but not so for high DEX turtles or blaster Jedi. If you want to play all three then it is probably best to do the turtle first and to make it a Guardian with a Scoundrel-type prestige class (Force Jump plus Sneak Attack :D) although Sentinel is also okay if you play DS. If you haven't any plans regarding gender and alignment yet: turtle and mage profit from Battle Precognition, so make them male and the fighter female. The dark side power you get shortly before the end game fits the theme of the mage, so you could make him evil; the dark side bonus carpet makes a nice tank which is another plus for an evil mage. :D The downside is that the DS mastery bonus for Consular-type classes is just some useless force points while LS master mages get +6 to WIS which translates to increased Force DC and an even higher FP bonus (level 18+). So it is okay either way but leaning towards LS, I guess. A Sentinel turtle with Scoundrel-type prestige class will like the DEX bonus for evil mastery more than the useless CON for LS mastery, so I'd say this is a tentative evil. An evil Guardian turned Sith Assassin should also work rather well (1-8 extra damage for Guardian, +3 DEX for Assassin). A fighter will appreciate the light side bonus power much more and the +6 STR bonus for LS mastery is okay; on the other hand, DS master fighters are a bit more powerful as they get 2-16 extra damage per attack. The Marauder's Fury adds even more power but a Marauder does not have to remain evil; you just have to put on an act for Kreia's benefit until level 15 because she won't make you Marauder unless she sees you as at least half evil. If you have already done Citadel the evil (Czerka) and the light (Ithorians) way then the LS master Marauder to-be is a perfect opportunity for being evil on the light-side path (Ithorians). There is some DS stuff that you don't get to see/do if you are evil for Czerka. Some musings on melee fighter details: a good choice for a high-damage low-AC melee fighter is Guardian followed by Weapon Master or Marauder, and the key attribute is of course STR. Flurry as primary attack feat will serve you well throughout the game, although you get enough feats to master the other two (Critical Strike, Power Attack) as well so that you can experiment which you like most. The latter two have their ups and downs while Flurry is always decent and dependable. Two-handed fighting does not become attractive before the midgame, earlier it is much more efficient to use a single vibro/sabre with (Master) Flurry and (Master) Duelling. So I'd follow the Flurry and Duelling feat chains first, and if they are stalled or complete then two-handed fighting and Power Attack. Stay away from the prestige class feats that increase attack bonus; they're useless because you'll have sufficient attack bonus when the feats become available and plenty to spare during the later game. The Heavy Armour feat is so-so; during the earlier game it can be fun if you find a decent suit and beef it up with some good upgrades (the Heavy Bonded Plates type overlays are cheap to make and fairly effective), because then even a STR build can be near unhittable. With Kreia supplying buffs via Force link the Exile becomes one mean and unstoppable tank. But I'd rather follow the theme and use either a STR-enhancing robe (Matukai) or something that can hold a strengthening underlay and does not restrict Force buffs (e.g. the Jal Shey or Zeison Sha type Jedi armours). Dead enemies don't deal damage, so who cares about defense ...

I know that it is supposed to work that way but it doesn't always. Several times it has happened that the fight was over in something like a second - my Exile would join the fray near the battle circle via Force Jump from the hangar and BAM!, Mandalore cutscene. Incidentally, some of the assassins must be super patient. In a game where the above happened, my Exile went back to the Mandalorian camp a loooong time later, after all planets were done. When she got near Mandalore's HQ a group of assassins spawned ... It was quite hilarious, what with the battle cries of the Mandalorians (Kelborn?) and such.

Same here, but that was before the patch. After the patch it didn't work anymore in my game.

It would seem that the alignment requirement for the prestige class is exactly the same as for getting the Visas vision cutscene. That is, at least halfway towards one of the extremes. I am mentioning this because I have seen various theories here on the boards that suggest stronger requirements (like e.g. mastery or very close).

I agree so far. Disagree. There are plenty of reasons for doing the sidequests that do not break you out of role-playing. A cash-strapped adventurer looks for possible sources of income, a light-side character will usually help because it is the right thing to do, a DS character has a reputation to uphold. Replace 'defuse' with 'recover' and I disagree again. Cash isn't exactly plentiful unless you play a DS character, do a lot of swoop racing or play pazaak for money; mines can be converted to cash or components/chemicals, and they can be used to detonate locks or enemies. Recovering mines if it is possible is simply a sensible thing to do. This is were things become interesting. The line between good adventuring and powergaming is rather murky here. Remember, in our world people tend to things like running rarely because they want to get from A to B quickly (especially if A == B == own front door) but simply for the side-effect of getting back into shape. And the General has a lot of getting back into shape to do, considering her state when she awakes on Peragus. The fact that killing foes can enable you to improve your lock-picking skill and that picking locks can enable you to improve your fighting abilities is an artifact of the XP/level system; however, in a game world with such a system it is somewhat in the self-interest of a character to do things that give XP because it is the only way of training or getting into shape. So, picking a lock just for practice is not necessarily powergaming yet. As I said, the line is rather murky. However, there is no doubt about what this is if you keep Atton at level 6 until your Exile hits level 12 because simple locks are DC26 and hence give 10*level XP up to level 6 and only 5*level after that. There is even less doubt if you leave the lock alone and come back 20 levels later to reap the XP. Note: lock XP in itself is marginal (100 XP for 20 levels deferment) but if the locks are numerous and/or accompanied by mines and repairable droids then the XP gain from deferring the harvest of skill XP can be several thousand for a single area. Another example for a murky distinction between role-playing and powergaming would be a light-side master Marauder ...

Please master impart knowledge of this "POWA-GAYMING"!! If really you wish to know, open a new thread for the topic and I'll lay everything out. In fact, I have already done so, but the bits and pieces are scattered all over the place. However, the gain from powergaming - perhaps two or three extra levels - is not really worth it unless you have done everything there is to do and you want to try a meta-gaming playthrough like a max-XP run or a min-XP run. This can be interesting in itself and a lot of fun. But once you have meta-gamed you cannot go back to playing normally, much in the same way as it is impossible to 'unlearn' how to read. Utilizing one of the infinite XP exploits (Hssiss, mines) gets you as many levels as you want but it does not spoil the game anywhere near as bad as meta-gaming does.

I think there are three 'levels' to this. (1) Exploring thoroughly and doing optional quests. Some of the optional quests are easy to miss, as are some party member interaction options (upgrading T3 fully, doing the skill training thing with Kreia, getting Force Sight from Visas, and so on). There are also things like that you cannot get the Peragus HK to admit to mimicking the voice of the maintenance officer (?) unless you were able to ID the console in the fuel depot, which you can only do if you sliced the computer console in the medbay earlier. The grand total for this little sideshow is about 800 XP, and stuff like this adds up. (2) Playing in a somewhat XP-aware manner. You get a bit of XP if you disarm or recover mines but none if you blow them up with Stun/Destroy Droid; you get a bit of XP for picking locks but none if you detonate them or bash them open. Mobs are tailored for your character when they are spawned; if you gain levels before you kill them then you get less XP. So it is better to 'do' an area thoroughly before venturing into the next. The worst possible scenario would be briefly touching many areas at low level without harvesting the livestock; this will cost you several levels and it can easily happen if you are replaying the game but unaware of the XP angle. In some cases this can happen naturally in a replay, if you dash around to get some quickie jobs done before you start your 'real' first planet in earnest. E.g. going to Nar Shaddaa first thing after Telos in order to trigger the encounter with the Twi'leks who hint at Atton's past (because you want to convert Atton), perhaps dropping in at the Jekk'Jekk Tarr in order to say howdy to the Lunar Shadow captain, then flying to Dantooine to do the atmospheric sensors quest for some quick cash and retrieving Jorran from the Enclave sublevel for the lightsabre parts. If you do this and stick to the objective that you have in mind - rather than clearing out the areas that you touch - then you won't kill more than a couple Kinrath in the Khoonda Plains and a few Laigreks. But you'll have spoilt several levels worth of XP: Serroco and Exchange thugs in the Nar Shaddaa refugee sectors, the Jekk'Jekk Tarr customers that you'll feed on later when you are officially invited, wildlife in the Khoonda Plains and near the Enclave, Kinrath in the cave proper, a merc and a Mandalorian in the camp near the Enclave, and plenty of Laigreks in the Enclave sublevel. With (1) and (2) you should be able to finish around level 30 without even trying hard. (3) Powergaming to further minimize XP loss and to maximize certain XP gains. By utilizing a few principles to the fullest and finessing things like the time and place of level-ups you can squeeze a bit more XP out of the game, for a finish at level 32..33. But if you touch this dark knowledge then you won't be able to play the game normally ever again - you don't want to tread there unless you've played the hell out of the game already.

Well, it'll be back for you as soon as you start a character with the Guardian class. "

LOL, I agree with the first part of your sentiment but not the second. On one hand, T3 can act as a portable workbench for the Exile but he won't even talk to any of the Dxun team; on the other hand, T3 is the only techie who doesn't have Stealth. Plus, there is the 'Zen and the Art of T3 Maintenance' meditation thingy which is exclusive to the Exile. If you send T3 to Dxun then you cannot summon him to your side on Onderon. Be that as it may, it would be fun if we could send HK-47 and the Fat One, with Bao-Dur as team leader (with the upgraded remote that repairs droids during combat). However, I don't think that is possible. <_<

Please note that I said 'single enemy'. A level-30 character does 30-180 damage with Force Storm (per enemy) for an average of 105, save for half damage. Consular-type classes do a bit more damage but nothing dramatical. A decent melee fighter does 450..500 damage per round on average (assuming the target can take that much :D); non-fighters somewhat less but probably at least 250 avg. There is no doubt that Force Storm is the most convenient way of dealing with groups of enemies (even for a fighter), since melee requires one combat round per enemy instead of 1..3 per room. But Force Storm is not very efficient for dealing with harder enemies like Sion. With melee Sion goes down in one round (fighters) or about two rounds (non-fighters); with Force Storm it would probably take at least 4 rounds even if he doesn't save. Your VP is in the same ballpark as Sion's and hence you can weather a couple of Storms without batting an eye. Speaking of Sion, he does have a habit of dropping nice crystals after the chat in the Trayus Academy. I mean nice crystals like Pontite, Barab Ore Ingot and so on. The Kinrath Matriarch has the same habit if you don't summon her too early.

(emphasis added) LOL, does this mean you only get the restored ending if you beat the game at level 9 or less? Not sure it is even possible. In my (currently paused) min-XP run the Exile is just about to leave Citadel for Telos and she is close to level 6 already ...

dabise, your insights into the NWN loot genny are interesting, and overall I agree with your above statement. However, in my eyes the loot scheme in TSL is too random if you consider that - apart from the Ossus Keeper Robes - none of the 'strategic' items can be bought or crafted or otherwise obtained except by pure chance. In the case of my Guardian/Marauder playthrough - which I had intended as a 'Study in Strength' - the loot genny basically thwarted the aim of the whole campaign. The characters in the four previous runs had plenty of GNS Strength Enhancers, plenty of Dominator Gloves and plenty of high-grade STR-enhancing implants, on average at least two of each, not to mention plenty of other high-grade stuff like gloves with +5 DEX, several Circlets of Saresh, several Force Focussing Visors, roughly 10 high-grade implants and so on. My Guardian/Marauder got nothing at all except for a nice skill belt (Tech Belt). So it is sure nice if a Sith blaster grunt drops a Barab Ore Ingot for you (even you already have one), but in addition to the purely random chance loot there should be some treasures that always yield something decent, as LadyCrimson and others have suggested, and/or some sensible plants (like the Ossus Keeper Robes). As regards being smart about loot drops - it is a difficult thing to get right. Would a character with maxed-out natural WIS/CHA welcome a Force Focussing Visor or a Circlet of Saresh? A character with 8/8 WIS/CHA? A character with more balanced attributes? You cannot know what the player wants to do and under no circumstances should the game try to make smart-aleck judgements about who of the three characters I mentioned 'deserves' a Circlet of Saresh (+5 WIS) or a Mental Boost D-Package (+3/+3 WIS/CHA), and who 'deserves' only a Meditation Band (+1 WIS) or half a dozen of the lowest-grade implants with +1/+1 WIS/CHA.

Both Nihilus and Traya have used Force Storm against some of my chars; as with Malak it may depend on fighting distance whether they prefer Force powers or melee combat. But that is probably beside the point since even the most powerful form of lightning does only pitiful damage against a single enemy, and so there seems to be no reason to use an item like the belt you mentioned. The Thermal Shield Generator is a similar belt which reduces fire damage by 75%, and I used it once to get Mira out of the Pit without levelling her up. After equipping the fire shield belt and some similar items I had her drop a couple plasma grenades on the floor; she took no damage but the rug was burnt badly. :D

Well, there's only so many interesting ways to split a defense bonus of 1. :D The miner's outfit obviously has a 'real armour rating' of 1 and a 'feats and effects' component of 0; it is the reverse with all robes that I tested (RAR 0, all of the defense bonus in F&F - I checked normal robes, knight robes and master robes). Since you get the full F&F mod of 10 from Master Speed + Force Armour already, the defense bonus from robes and items like Enhanced Shielding Visor or Expert Fencing Emitter is basically redundant for many characters during the later parts of the game. JFTR, Zeison Sha Warrior Armour has AR 5 with a 3/2 split, Jal Shey Advisor Armour has 3 AR without split (RAR 3, F&F 0). I meant Force Enlightenment, which is the power you get lateish in the game (minor spoiler) . For the purposes of this discussion Force Enlightenment is equivalent to casting your highest Speed spell and your highest Force Armour spell. (And for the purposes of playing the game Force Enlightenment is extremely useful and convenient. :D) I guess the only way to get to the bottom of this would be to catch a couple of the devs and place them in poetry appreciation chairs^W^W^Wtorture restraints. I wonder whose interrogation protocols would be more effective - HK-47, HK-50, or G0-T0? Well, the KotOR/TSL system is actually very simple - all defense boni stack, no distinction between Armour mod, Shield mod, Dodge mod and so on with some mods stacking and some not (I think only Dodge mods are supposed to stack in d20). The problems arise only from the mysterious cap on the 'feats and effects' mod. There may be some minor bugs - IIRC the game actually applies a negative DEX 'bonus' and this is not consistent - but on the whole all the confusion seems to be due to he F&F mod cap. And without this cap the strange armour rating split into RAR and F&F would have no effect except for a slightly confusing defense breakdown.

Did a little more experimentation. It looks like the bonus from Duelling is not factored into 'feats and effects', it is listed separately as 'feat'. But the defense bonus/penalty from lightsabre forms does get added to the 'feats and effects', and it seems to get applied after enforcing the ceiling of 10. I loaded a save with the girl in miner's outfit facing a Sith Lord who wielded a lightsabre. With the Juyo form and a melee weapon, defense (unbuffed) was 26 as in the breakdown I posted earlier; this was as expected since lightsabre forms are not supposed to affect combat with other weapons. After switching to a lightsabre the feedback log showed defense 22 with 'feats and effects' mod -4. After this I equipped two defense boosters (total DB 5) and cast Enlightenment; if the 'feats and effects' mod were not capped this would have resulted in a mod of 15. Then I approached the Sith Lord again for a defense probing: with a melee weapon 'feats and effects' was 10 (i.e. cut off) but with the lightsabre it was 6. I think this clearly shows that form defense bonus is applied after any clamping to the mysterious limit of 10, since (15 - 4 = 11) > 10. Another indication is that a form bonus (like the +3 from Shii-Cho) can bring 'feats and effects' above 10. P.S.: I guess that the clamping to 10 occurs when determining the 'static' defense rating as shown in the equip screen and special effects (lightsabre form, bonus against alignment like the +1 against DS from Nomi's Armband) are applied afterwards, when doing the calculations for a specific attack from a specific foe. P.P.S.: I think if we take the two aspects into account - the 'split' of an armour suit's defense bonus into an 'armour' component and a 'feats and effects' component, and the clamping of 'feats and effects' to a ceiling of 10 at some intermediate point during defense calculations - then we can explain all discrepancies that we've seen so far. And without the clamping there would not be any problems at all.

Defense bonus from Jedi Sense, Scoundrel's Luck and (Greater) Prestige Sense; these feats are automatic for certain classes, hence the 'class' label. In this particular case it is 4x2 (from Jedi Sense, for 19 Guardian levels) plus 3x2 (from Greater Prestige Sense, for 13 Weapon Master levels).

The STFU feat: when a character activates this feat then the AI does nothing at all except shut down, stay put, and wait for rescue. This is not quite the same as the 'Stationary' script which - besides being utterly broken - still allows the AI to meddle in fights.

Using a balanced weapon in the off-hand reduces the dual-wield attack penalty on the main hand by 2. If you have the Master Two-Weapon Fighting feat (remaining dual-wield penalty -2/-2) then the balanced off-hand weapon negates the penalty for main hand completely. As regards dual-wielding for increasing defense: except for blaster bolt deflection (mostly useless in TSL) the off-hand sabre will likely not be able to make up for the loss of 3 defense compared to single-wielding with Master Duelling. The Expert Fencing Emitter adds 2 defense and certain crystals may give a DEX bonus, but the defense bonus from the EFE goes into the 'feats and effects' mod which is capped at 10. A whole lot of other defense boni also go into 'feats and effects'; LS Enlightenment alone adds 10 points to it (if you have both Force Armour and Master Speed). So, if you want high defense then you might be better off taking the Duelling feats and wielding a single sabre.