How feasible is a dark-side caster?

[Snizzlet]

I've played through once as a light-side melee character, so no worries about spoilers. I know from that that there are times when your main character has to go solo, in particular at the end. My question is, how feasible is a caster-type character, in terms of combat difficulty. Note that I plan on going dark-side for that playthrough. I presume that a light-side caster (consular) would get wrecked, or at best be pretty helpless, for example in the rooms full of assassins/dark jedi in the Trayus Academy.

[Ferr]

Force storm can easily wipe them out within 2 rounds. You shouldn't invest to much on willpower because a) the exile will have enough FP at 13 ~ 15 level anyway so more FP from willpower is pointless and b) the passive of consular is worth 6 point of willpower IIRC and with some nice gear your force powers should be difficult to check for enemies.

My current light path consular started with stats of 14/12/14/12/14/10(probably wrong but something like this) and I have no trouble soloing any mobs I encounter.

[CrackeR]

I train force storm even on my light side chars...it is sooo OP haha

[avatar.zero]

No kidding. Once you've picked up Force Storm at level 18 the rest of the game becomes a cakewalk, regardless of difficulty.

[cerberusiv]

Force Storm is OP. Insanity (or Stasis if you are LS) is useful for freezing even large groups of enemies so you can kill them any way you like at your leisure.

Starting as a consular is the tricky bit as you will be pathetic at melee and it will be some time before you get decent force powers. An interesting option is to start as a sentinel (which gives better melee as well as more useful skills) then take Sith Lord for your prestige rank.

[1337Dude]

The game's a bit too easy as a caster, unfortunately. Buff yourself to hell, debuff the enemies - you can't lose. Don't even have to ♥♥♥♥ with force lightning.

[Shan]

Originally posted by cerberusiv:

Force Storm is OP. Insanity (or Stasis if you are LS) is useful for freezing even large groups of enemies so you can kill them any way you like at your leisure.

Starting as a consular is the tricky bit as you will be pathetic at melee and it will be some time before you get decent force powers. An interesting option is to start as a sentinel (which gives better melee as well as more useful skills) then take Sith Lord for your prestige rank.

Consular/Weaponmaster or Consular/Marauder makes you good at both using force powers and CQC. I prefer the Light Side version though.

When going Dark though, it's actually better to pick a different Prestige class due to the way the Max Light/Dark side bonuses work in this game. Since the Light Side Mastery bonuses up one of your attributes, they are able to stack, thus as a Guardian/Weaponmaster, you get a total of +6 to Strength at max Light Side. The Dark Side somewhat encourages you to pick a totally different Prestige since the Dark Side Mastery bonuses *do NOT stack* (well, aside from Sentinel/Assassin, with mastery giving a total of +6 Dexterity, but who plays that anyway :P).

So, when you *are* playing Dark Side, keep the following in mind:
A Jedi Guardian who becomes a Sith Marauder is only granted a dark side mastery bonus of Damage: Slashing 1-8, not 2-16, while a Jedi Consular who becomes a Sith Lord is only granted a dark side mastery bonus of +50 Force points, not +100 (although a Jedi Consular who becomes a Sith Marauder is granted dark side mastery bonuses of +50 Force points and Damage: Slashing, 1-8).

The Force points are a moot point, since if you are going for a caster, you'll spec your attributes to get plenty of Force points anyway (added with the cheapening of the best Dark Side FP's the further you go down the morality scale really discourages going Consular/Lord).

So, my advice, for a Dark-sided caster is to either start as a Consular and go Assassin for your Prestige class or go the other way around it (Sentinel/Lord). If you want to be anything decent in CQC though, Consular/Marauder is the better option over Guardian/Lord.

Wall of text, my 2cents.

Edit:
It's even better if you play a male character though, due to learning Battle Precognition from Handmaiden. It's a nifty little passive power which adds your Wisdom Modifier to your Defense. If you play a male, there is no real need to pick Sentinel or Assassin.

[Snizzlet]

Alright, thanks all looks like I have a new character to build

[Shan]

Edited my previous post. Mixed up Watchman and Assassin.