See also Prestige Classes
Star Wars heroes seek credits, glory, justice, fame, influence, and knowledge, among other goals. Some of these goals are honorable, some base. Each character chooses a different way to achieve these goals, from brutal combat power to subtle skills to mastery of the Force. Some adventurers prevail and grow in experience, wealth, and power. Others die.
A character class is the frame upon which you build your hero. It isn’t meant to be rigid or confining. Instead, a class provides a starting point from which you can develop in any direction you see fit. Don’t think of a class as restrictive; instead, a class is defining. When you choose a class for your character, you’re laying the foundation of a concept that will grow and expand as you play. A class provides structure. How you develop your character is entirely up to you. You get to choose talentS and feats as you advance—and you can take levels in other classes as you go along if that better serves the concept at the core of your hero.
Choosing a Heroic Class
Five basic classes, known as heroic classes, are available in the Star Wars Roleplaying Game. Characters with levels in heroic classes are called heroic characters, or heroes. Unlike nonheroic supporting characters, heroic characters have many special abilities that make them extraordinary.
At 1st level, you must choose a heroic class for your character. The five heroic classes are:
| Jedi: | The Jedi are the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy. They learn to master the Force, and their trademark weapon is the lightsaber. |
|---|---|
| Noble: | The noble is a shrewd bargainer and negotiator who inspires confidence and makes a great leader. |
| Scoundrel: | The scoundrel is a tricky, skillful rogue who succeeds by stealth instead of brute force. |
| Scout: | The scout is a cunning, skilled explorer trained to operate in the vast wilderness of space and backwater worlds. |
| Soldier: | A warrior with exceptional combat capability and unequaled skill with weapons. |
Class Level and Bonuses
An attack roll is a combination of three numbers, each representing a different factor: a random factor (the number you roll on the d20), a number representing the character’s innate abilities (the ability modifier), and a bonus representing the character’s experience and training. This third factor depends on the character’s class and level. Each class table summarizes the figures for this third factor.
Base Attack Bonus
Your character’s base attack bonus (BAB) applies to all attack rolls. Use the bonus that corresponds to the character’s class level.
If a character has more than one class, add the base attack bonuses for each class together to determine the character’s base attack bonus.
Damage Bonus
Your character deals extra damage on melee and ranged attacks equal to one-half their character level, rounded down. A 1st-level character, therefore, has a damage bonus of +0.
For example, a 4th-level soldier armed with a heavy blaster deals 3d8+2 points of damage with the weapon. A 12th-level soldier armed with the exact same weapon deals 3d8+6 points of damage.
Defenses
Your character has three defense scores.
- Reflex Defense: 10 + your heroic level or armor bonus + Dexterity modifier + class bonus + natural armor bonus (if any) + size modifier
- Fortitude Defense: 10 + your heroic level + Constitution modifier + class bonus + equipment bonus
- Will Defense: 10 + your heroic level + Wisdom modifier + class bonus
Heroic Level
Your heroic level is the sum of all levels you have in heroic classes (Jedi, noble, scoundrel, scout, soldier) and prestige classes. It does not include levels in the nonheroic character class or beast class. For example, if you were a scout 6/soldier 2, you would have a heroic level of 8, adding that number to all of your defense scores.
Class Bonuses to Defenses
When you take your first level in a heroic class, you gain class bonuses on two or more defenses, as shown below:
| Class | Class Bonuses to Defenses |
|---|---|
| Jedi | +1 Fortitude Defense, +1 Reflex Defense, +1 Will Defense |
| Noble | +1 Reflex Defense, +2 Will Defense |
| Scoundrel | +2 Reflex Defense, +1 Will Defense |
| Scout | +1 Fortitude Defense, +2 Reflex Defense |
| Soldier | +2 Fortitude Defense, +1 Reflex Defense |
Class bonuses do not stack; you only apply the best bonus from all your classes to each defense score. Continuing the previous example, if you were a scout 6/soldier 2, you would have a +2 class bonus to your Fortitude Defense (this is the better bonus, granted by being a soldier) and a +2 class bonus to your Reflex Defense (also the better bonus, granted by being a scout). If you later added a level of noble, you would also gain a +2 class bonus to your Will Defense.
Level-Dependent Benefits
In addition to attack bonuses and saving throw bonuses, all characters gain other benefits from advancing in level. The table below summarizes these additional benefits.
XP: This column shows the experience point total needed to achieve a given character level. For multiclass characters, XP determines overall character level, not individual class levels.
Feats: This column indicates the levels at which a character gains feats. These feats are in addition to any bonus feats granted in the class descriptions and the bonus feat granted to Humans at 1st level.
Ability Increases: This column indicates the levels at which a character gains ability score increases. Upon gaining 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 20th level, a character increases two of their ability scores by 1 point each. The player chooses which two ability scores to improve. A player cannot apply both ability increases to a single ability score, and the ability improvements are permanent.
| Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Character Level |
XP | Feats | Ability Increases |
Character Level |
XP | Feats | Ability Increases |
| 1st | 0 | 1st | 11th | 55,000 | |||
| 2nd | 1,000 | 12th | 66,000 | 5th | 5th, 6th | ||
| 3rd | 3,000 | 2nd | 13th | 78,000 | |||
| 4th | 6,000 | 1st, 2nd | 14th | 91,000 | |||
| 5th | 10,000 | 15th | 105,000 | 6th | |||
| 6th | 15,000 | 3rd | 16th | 120,000 | 7th, 8th | ||
| 7th | 21,000 | 17th | 136,000 | ||||
| 8th | 28,000 | 3rd, 4th | 18th | 153,000 | 7th | ||
| 9th | 36,000 | 4th | 19th | 171,000 | |||
| 10th | 45,000 | 20th | 190,000 | 9th, 10th | |||
For example, a noble with a starting Dexterity of 13 and a starting Charisma of 15 might improve to Dex 14 and Cha 16 at 4th level. At 8th level, the same character might improve Charisma again (from 16 to 17) and increase any one of the other five abilities by 1 as well.
Ability score increases are retroactive. For example, if you increase your Intelligence score from 13 to 14, you immediately gain an additional trained skill chosen from your class skills and an additional language. Similarly, if a Jedi with two instances of the Force Training feat increased his Wisdom from 13 to 14, he would gain two Force powers (for a total of six).
Multiclass Characters: For multiclass characters, ability increases are gained according to overall character level, not class level. Thus, a 3rd-level noble/1st-level soldier is a 4th-level character overall and eligible for her first two ability score boosts.
Multiclass Characters
As a character advances in level, they may add new classes. Adding a new class gives the character a broader range of abilities, but all advancement in the new class is at the expense of advancement in the character’s other class or classes. A noble, for example might become a noble/soldier. Adding the soldier class would give her proficiency in more weapons, a better Fortitude Defense, and so on, but it would also mean that she doesn’t gain new noble talents and thus is not as powerful a noble as she otherwise would have become. In essence, Multiclassing improves a character’s versatility at the expense of focus.
Class and Level Features
As a general rule, the abilities of a multiclass character are the sum of the abilities of each of the character’s classes.
Level
“Character level” is a character’s total number of levels. It derives from overall XP earned and is used to determine when feats and ability score boosts are gained, as per the table above: Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits. “Class level” is the character’s level in a particular class, as per the individual class tables. For the single-class hero, character level and class level are the same.
Hit Points
Each time you gain a new level, roll a hit point die (the size of the die depends on the class in which the level is gained) and add the result to your character’s hit point total. Your character’s Constitution modifier applies to each hit point die roll.
For example, a 1st-level scout who becomes a 1st level scout/1st-level soldier gains a number of additional hit points equal to 1d0 + the character’s Constitution modifier. A few game sessions later, the character gains a second level in the scout class, becoming a 2nd-level scout/1st-level soldier, whereupon her hit points increase by 1d8 + the character’s Constitution modifier.
Base Attack Bonus
While it is true that multiclassing means the character is more “Jack of all trades, master of none,” it can seriously impact the playability of multiclassed characters because of the arbitary BAB assignment depending on what extra classes are selected. For example, if a 1st level noble chooses to multiclass into scoundrel on their second character level, their BAB is still 0. If that same cahracter chooses to multiclass into scout on their third character level, the BAB is still 0 even at character level 3.
As an alternative, for all classes that have a starting BAB of 0, treat each level of that class as having a BAB of 0.75 instead of the normally assigned number (1st level = 0.75, 2nd = 1.5, …). Add up all the character’s class level bonuses normally, then round down to the nearest whole number.
Example: Ma’ax Kenser is a young noble who got caught up with the wrong crowd and he had to adapt in order to survive. For his second class, he chooses to multiclass into the scoundrel class to reflect his new skill set. Later on, he suddenly finds himself marooned on a planet that has a sparse population, and he must now live of the land. For his third class he takes a level in scout. As a level three character, he would add up each class’ bonus of .75 which would give him a total of 2.25. He then rounds down to the nearest whole number of 2.
This alternative is intended to allow for more flexibiltiy in roleplaying rather than munchkining. GMs and players should discuss any usage of “house rules” and only implement them if it supports good roleplaying.
Add the base attack bonus of each class to get the character’s base attack bonus. For instance, a 6th-level noble/2nd-level soldier has a base attack bonus of +6 (+4 for noble, +2 for soldier).
Defenses
Each time a character gains a new level, his Reflex Defense, Fortitude Defense, and Will Defense need to be adjusted to account for the increase on character level.
A character who takes his first level of a new class also gains a class bonus to one or more of his defenses; however, this class bonus does not stack with other class bonuses.
Skills
When you select a new class, you do not gain any new trained skills. However, your list of class skills expands to include those of the new class. If you take the Skill Training feat, you may choose your new trained skill from the class skill list of any class in which you have levels.
For example, Arani is a multiclass noble/soldier who takes the Skill Training feat. Her new trained skill may be chosen from the noble’s list of class skills or the soldier’s list of class skills.
Starting Feats
When you select a new class, you do not gain all of its starting feats. Select one feat from the list of starting feats. For example, a 1st-level noble decides to take a level of soldier and gains one feat of his choice from the soldier’s list of starting feats; he selects Weapon Proficiency (rifles).
Talents
If a character gains a talent as a consequence of gaining a level, he must select a talent associated with the class in which he gained the level. For example, Arani is a 2nd-level noble who decides to take a level in the soldier class, which grants her a talent. She must select her new talent from the soldier talent tree (or from Force talent tress, if she has the Force Sensitivity feat), since it was a soldier level that granted her the talent.
Feats
For multiclass characters, feats are received at 3rd level and every three character levels thereafter, regardless of individual class level (see the Experience and Level-Dependent Benefits table above).
A multiclass character that gains a class bonus feat must select it from the bonus feats available to that particular class. For example, Arani is a 2nd-level noble/1st-level soldier who decides to take a second level in the soldier class. Doing so grants her a bonus feat, which she must select from the soldier’s list of bonus feats.
Ability Increases
For multiclass characters, abilities are increased every four character levels, regardless of individual class level.
Adding a Second Class
When a single-class character gains a level, they may choose to increase the level of their current class or pick up a new class at 1st level. The GM may restrict the choices available according to how they handle classes, skills, experience, and training. For instance, the character may need to find a teacher to instruct him in the ways of the new class. Additionally, the GM may require the player to declare what class their hero is “working on” before they make the jump to the next level, so the character has time to practice new skills. In this way, the new class is the result of previous effort rather than a sudden development.
The character gains the base attack bonus, class bonuses to defense, and class skills, as well as hit points of the appropriate die type and a talent associated with the new class.
Picking up a new class is not exactly the same as starting a character in that class. Some of the benefits for a 1st-level hero represent the advantage of training while young and fresh, with lots of time to practice. When picking up a new class, a hero does not receive the following starting benefits given to characters that begin their careers in that class.
- Starting feats (select only one of the starting feats)
- Maximum, tripled hit points from the first die
- Starting credits
Advancing a Level
Each time a multiclass character achieves a new level, he either increases one of his current class levels by one or picks up a new class at 1st level.
When a multiclass character increases one of his classes by one level, he gets all the standard benefits that characters get for achieving that level in that class: more hit points, possible bounces on attack rolls, better defense scores, and one or more new class features (such as a talent or bonus feat). In addition, a multiclass character has the option to take any starting feat for that class as a bonus feat.
How Multiclassing Works
Arani, a 4th-level noble, decides she wants to expand her repertoire by learning some soldering. When Arani reaches 10,000 XP, she becomes a 5th-level character. Instead of becoming a 5th-level noble, however, she becomes a 4th-level noble/1st-level soldier. How exactly she picked up this new area of focus isn’t critical to the campaign, though the player and the GM are encouraged to create an in-game reason and opportunity for the hero to do so.
Now, instead of gaining the benefits of a new level of noble, she gains the benefits of becoming a 1st-level soldier. She gains a 1st-level soldier’s +1 base attack bonus, a soldier’s +2 class bonus to Fortitude Defense, and a soldier talent. Because she gained a level, all of her defenses (Reflex, Fortitude, and Will) increase by 1.
The benefits described above are added to the scores Arani already had as a noble. She doesn’t gain any of the benefits a 5th-level noble gains.
On achieving 15,000 XP, Arani becomes a 6th-level hero. She decides she’d like to continue along the soldier path, so she increases her soldier level instead of her noble level. Again she gains the soldier’s benefits for attaining a new level rather than the noble’s. At this point, Arani is a 4th-level noble/2nd-level soldier. Her combat skill is a little better than a 4th-level noble’s would be because she has learned something about fighting during her time as a soldier. Her base attack bonus is +5 (+3 from her noble class and +2 from her soldier class). Her Reflex, Fortitude, and Will Defenses each increase by 1.
At each new level, Arani decides whether to increase her noble level or her soldier level. Of course, if she wants to have even more diverse abilities, she could acquire a third class, such as scoundrel. At some point, she may also qualify for a prestige class. In general, a character can multiclass as many times as there are classes available.
Class Descriptions Explained
Each Heroic and Prestige Class has its own page describing that individual class. These descriptions are general. Individual members of a class may differ in their attitudes, outlooks, and other aspects. This section will show how the class descriptions will be layed out.
Game Rule Information
Game rule information follows the general class description. Not all of the following ctageories apply to every class.
Abilities
This entry tells you which abilities are most important for a character of that class. Players can “play against type,” but a typical character of a class puts their highest ability scores where they’ll do the most good. (Or, in game-world terms, the character is attracted to the class that most suits their talents, or for which they are best qualified.)
Hit Points
A 1st-level heroic character begins play with a certain number of hit points determined by their class:
| Class | Starting Hit Points |
|---|---|
| Noble, Scoundrel | 18 + Constitution modifier |
| Scout | 24+ Constitution modifier |
| Jedi, Soldier | 30 + Constitution modifier |
A character’s hit points increase each time they gain a level. The type of die rolled depends on the class in which the level is gained, as shown below:
| Class | Starting Hit Points |
|---|---|
| Noble, Scoundrel | 1d6 + Constitution modifier |
| Scout | 1d8 + Constitution modifier |
| Jedi, Soldier | 1d10 + Constitution modifier |
The character always gets at least 1 hit point with each new level, regardless of the player’s die roll and the character’s Constitution modifier.
Class Table
This table details how a character improves as they gain levels. Class tables include the foloowing information:
- Level: The character’s level in the class.
- Base Attack Bonus (BAB): The character’s base attack bonus. Apply this bonus to the character’s attack rolls.
- Class Features: Level-dependent class abilities, alternating between talents and bonus feats.
Class Skills
Every class has a list of class skills. Once a player selects a class for their character, they chose a number of trained skills from the character’s list of class skills. The exact number of trained skills a player can choos at 1st level depends on the character’s class:
| Class | Number if Trained Skills |
|---|---|
| Jedi | 2 + Intelligence modifier |
| Noble | 6 + Intellignce modifier |
| Scoundrel | 4 + Intellignce modifier |
| Scout | 5 + Intellignce modifier |
| Soldier | 3 + Intellignce modifier |
Put another way, a character’s trained skills represent a subset of that character’s class skills. Every time a character picks up a new class, their list of class skills grows to include those of the new class, but the only way to gain new trained skills after 1st level is to takthe the Skill Training feat.
For example, a noble gets 6 trained skills at 1st level. If they have a +1 Intelligence modifier, their total becomes 7 trained skills. The noble then selcts 7 skills from their list of class skills, which then become trained skill for them.
Class Features
This entry details special characteristics of the class, including starting feats that the character gets for free at 1st level, special talents uniquely flavored to the class, and bonus feats.