Security skill level

[MaglorD]

Does anyone know what level of security skill is required to open the locked container in the Oderron Palace? The one containing the silver crystal and bronze double-bladed lightsabre.

 

I had Bao-Dur with something like 24 security and couldn't open it even with security tunnelers. After I killed Kiph, I used his security spike tunnelers and got it open on the second try...whew. I didn't seem to have any problem using Atton in another game and they were similarly skilled in security. Maybe Atton has a special advantage being the security expert.

[Darth Frog]

These locks have a DC of (LEVEL + 33) and the DC will be determined/set when you first enter the area where the lock is. There are more such locks in the game; I think the first you encounter is the one on the Harbinger, on the door opposite of the Exile's room.

 

P.S.: to find out what the DC of a lock is, just look at the feedback log after attempting to open the lock.

[MaglorD]

These locks have a DC of (LEVEL + 33) and the DC will be determined/set when you first enter the area where the lock is. There are more such locks in the game; I think the first you encounter is the one on the Harbinger, on the door opposite of the Exile's room.

 

P.S.: to find out what the DC of a lock is, just look at the feedback log after attempting to open the lock.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Good call on checking the feedback log. It seems though that Atton never has any problems with these locks.

[Darth Frog]

It seems though that Atton never has any problems with these locks.

 

That is strange - if anything, he should have more problems than the Exile because he is always at least one level behind and the amount of points that you can pay into a class skill is capped by (LEVEL + 3). Also, if memory serves Atton has very low Intelligence, he's barely able to speak. I can't see how Atton can open these locks without tunnelers even if you max his Security skill and put all attribute points into Intelligence. Later in the game there are plenty of Security-boosting items but the Exile can use them too, except for a very nice Scoundrel-only item that gives a big Security boost (among other things).

 

T3 would be a different thing. I think he starts with higher Intelligence then you'd ever give your Exile and you can do upgrades that boost INT even more, and so T3 can be better than the Exile even though he is also at least one level behind.

 

Since DC of the difficult locks is based on your level you can plan for them without knowing the exact DC - just make sure the Exile or some other party member can beat Security DC (LEVEL + 33), which basically means keeping the Security skill topped up and a couple tunnelers at hand, in addition to whatever Valour spell you can cast and any items you may have. Early in the game you may even need a spike tunneler.

 

The math is simple. If you keep Security topped up then the unmodded skill rank will be (LEVEL + 3), which is 30 points less than the lock DC. Out of combat you always take 20 on the roll, which leaves 10 skill ranks to beat with INT mod, items and Valour spells. A character with 16 INT has an INT mod of 3, and you can always have at least the basic Valour spell which increases the INT mod by 1. So you have 10 - 3 - 1 = 6 skill points to beat if you don't have any security-boosting items, and a plain tunneler should do that.

 

The difficult locks are rare and if you always keep a few tunnelers at hand then you can use the above math to decide at level-up whether you need to max the Exile's security skill. The more booster items you have and the more potent your Valour spell is the less points you need to pay into Security (i.e. you can afford to trail the allowed maximum by a couple of skill points and spend them elsewhere).

 

P.S.: it might be good idea to put 'bl**dy difficult locks' or something like that in the subtitle of this thread, so that people browsing the forum have a better idea what this topic is about. I think you can do this by editing the top post.