Elithrar

And take different henchmen, explore different conversation options, and do side-quests differently.

Sneak Attack works on any opponent that is not attacking you; and is hence labelled 'flat-footed', unless they have a certain 'level' of Uncanny Dodge. That is why you can simply attack a foe who is attacking a party-member, or a foe in statis/stun/choke and do Sneak Attack damage against them. Which, in other words, means that you don't need to enter stealth-mode to use Sneak Attacks, making the Watchman a viable class. And a good one at that.

Hah, not exactly. My character was far from 'mix-maxed' or the like; she totally relied on buffs. No offensive Force Powers, either, and only a single-saber. Master Speed cuts down on travel time, though

Did you type that correctly? Twenty hours? I *finished* it in 21, and did the majority of side-quests

You can play through with most combinations and make it through KotOR2. Not a hard game, by any means. I just went for the jack-of-all-trades Sentinel/Watchman, who relies on the Force to sustain herself. STR 10, DEX 16, CON 12, INT 14, WIS 14, CHA 12. She essentially buffs herself via Master Speed, Valor and Defense, uses Battle Meditation and relies on Force Immunity against other Force Wielders. AC46 without stims is okay in my books, and she works well in a party. Not 'uber', but good enough to hold her own solo or not.

It was on level footing with the first; the first game was just more polished, even with the nice additions to mechanics present in KotOR2. Like I've said before, it's a good game that could've been great.

Playing through with a noble, Light-Side blonde female who wields a single lightsaber of sapphire blue; I almost always go single saber for my LS characters. Double (either staff or two) for my Dark Side characters, but I've never played DS in either KotOR1 or KotOR2.

16 hours and still no lightsaber? Ouch. Got mine after about 6; nevertheless, you need the lens unit, not an actual lens upgrade. Head to Onderon; I won't say anymore in an effort to prevent spoilers.

I'm not sure how many base skill-points a Sentinel gets; start off with INT 10, and find out. I believe its' four. Anyway, it's the base skill-points + 1 extra per INT modifier -- INT 14 = + 2 modifier -- so you'd need an Intelligence of about 18, which truly isn't worth it. A jack of all trades, master of none, but in the worst way possible. Best to stick with the important ones, and let your companions manage the ones you don't know.

Those I've talked to say it crashes often, and I've experienced it first hand. Frames drop severely on a certain agricultural planet. Cutscenes skip, cameras appear in heads, textures disappear and there are spelling errors. When an NPC spoke about "Bastilla," I found it a pretty glaring mistake. One 'l', not two. KotOR1 had its crashes, but nowhere near as much as KotOR2. Indeed, LucasArts rushed Obsidian, and no doubt they seemed eager to please LA too. Another month of beta testing would not have hurt at all, nor would it have hurt for LA to supply a few more testers if they wanted it out so quickly. Oh, and whoever posted up the review scores for KotOR2; sure, they're good scores, but the content and story are good enough -- once you're past the first two regions -- to keep the score up, despite the large number of bugs. The least LA or Obsidian could do would be to patch the game quick-smart, and/or release that extra content that they supposedly dropped.