Heavy metal Consular build

Tired of whacking things with laser swords, killing things with force storm? I present to you the only viable Heavy Weapon Jedi build: a.k.a The Frank Reynolds builds, or the; so, anyway, I started blasting build.

Introduction

Hello KotOR fans! Looking for something new and flavorful for your next play through? Look no further! Bored of your cookie cutter Scoundrel/Guardian, or Scout/Consular and Scoundrel/Consular builds which spam force powers or do some heavy light saber work, but do nothing else?

Well.. Have you ever asked yourself WWFRS? Or what would Frank Reynolds Say? and what the hell does this have to do with KotOR? Look no further; Frank would say: "So, anyway, I started blasting" And that's what this build is all about!

This is the video if you are too bored/can't read:

I made this build with a focus on Solo play, but it is easily adaptable for a party playthrough and the bonus is that it can easily be tweaked to repair HK-47 fully if you want to!

Attributes

Starting attributes:

• Str 8
  
• Dex 18 [+4]
  
• Con 10 [+1 @lvl 20]
  
• Int 8
  
• Wis 14
  
• Cha 14

Let's talk about this a little bit. Strength at 8 because it affects neither ranged damage nor ranged attack bonus, so we can comfortably leave this at 8 without incurring any penalties.

Dex is going to be our primary attribute as it affects our ranged attack bonus, which is what we need to land our heavy weapon blaster shots!

Constitution.. Well this may be a little controversial, but I play this game on impossible difficulty and in my experience enemies will always one or two shot me with this build (Scoundrel and Consular both have low base hp) now you could argue that that would make constitution a more important stat, but 20 or 40 hp extra at level 20 is not going to save you from that kind of damage, you would also need to take toughness and the constitution implant, which we have neither the feats for nor the slots (we need the implant slot for that +5 dexterity implant).

Intelligence, this is one is going to be argued over I'm sure, in my humble opinion Intelligence is just about the worst stat in the game. Don't get me wrong, I like skill points, but the way the mechanics work in this game make it useless to spend points in Intelligence. Basically you get skill points based off of half your intelligence modifier, which means that you need 14(!!) int for 1 extra skill point per level; not worth it. Furthermore it doesn't scale well into the game as there are very few items that actually add to intelligence, in fact there is only one item and it adds only 1 intelligence, and it takes up your precious implant slot, so.. no. no. no! Now, this build doesn't consider repairing HK-47 as it's primarily designed to be a solo build, but if you want to you can easily take int to 10, just to avoid incurring the -1 skill point penalty, save up your skill points as scoundrel and then spend them on repair, because consular Jedi's get repair as a class skill.

Wisdom and Charisma I will talk about simultaneously as they both do the same, in effect they increase your force point pool (nice) and they also increase the DC check for enemies (so making your CC powers more reliable).

Skills

I will keep this section brief. Keep in mind this build was designed for soloing the game, if you are playing with companions you might want to tweak it here and there.

Picked skills:

• Demolitions 1 point
  
• Stealth 10 points
  
• Persuade 18 points
  
• Security 1 point
  
• Treat injury all remaining points
  
  I put one point into demolitions, this is only necessary if you are playing solo, otherwise you can use mission for this. Basically 1 hard point let's you place any difficulty mine which is very helpful for getting through Taris. Stealth again, this skill is only really important if you are playing Solo, as this allows you to sneak without being detected and fire off 2 shots which have your sneak attack damage added to them, otherwise feel free to ignore this section of the guide as you can spend your points any way you want.
  Persuade is always a priority no matter if you are solo or in a party I believe having 19 Persuade allows you to pass hard persuade checks 75% of the time, if you can find a way to get to 26 persuade (with items and abilities) you will pass those checks 100% of the time. For me, 75'% is good enough otherwise we would have to dump dex and add Charisma.
  Security is simply there to be able to open low security doors on Taris because doing that with a blaster takes for ever, otherwise this skill is pretty useless, you cannot destroy loot by bashing open containers in this game, and you can bash open and door or container!
  Treat injury is a great skill, as medpacks, especially the life support packs heal more damage than the force power heal ever can. Especially important for a solo run!
  
  Side note: If you are going to play this in a party and want HK, simply save your skill points from your scoundrel levels and spend them on repair once you become a Consular, you will have enough points to get a high enough repair skill to fully repair HK.

Feats

Let's keep this short.

The most important feats are:
Rapid shot (take at level 1)
Implant (take at level 2)
Improved Rapid shot (take at level 5)
Heavy weapons (take at level 8)

From there max improved rapid shot and then implant level 2 and 3. The last feat will be heavy weapon specialisation.

Jedi Powers

The following section is heavily defined by this being a Solo build. If you are not playing solo a lot of other choices open up for you.

Jedi level 1 (Character level 8)
Burst of Speed
Fear

Jedi level 2
Horror

Jedi level 3
Knight Speed

Jedi level 4
Force push

Jedi level 5
Insanity
Force Whirlwind

Jedi level 6
Force Valour

Jedi level 7
Knights Valour

Jedi level 8
Master speed

Jedi level 9
Master Valour
Energy resistance

Jedi level 10
Force Suppression

Jedi level 11
Force Breach

Jedi level 12
Slow

Jedi level 13
Affliction
Plague

Discussion:
Crowd control:
I opt for insanity for my primary power for CC as it targets will save which is generally the lowest save for enemies. Also tier 2 (Horror) is already a 5m aoe unlike stasis which is single target at 2nd tier. Insanity also becomes available at level 12 and becomes 10m aoe. Unlike stasis field (also 10m aoe) which only becomes available at level 15. With consular levels you will have no problem casting dark-side powers even though you will get a penalty because we will be light sided.
The only problem here will be enemies which have immunity: mind-affecting. That's where force whirlwind comes into play, this skill targets reflex saves (also lower on average than fortitude save) and will let us CC those targets which are immune to Insanity/Horror. So it is very important not to take Force Wave as this will overwrite Force Whirlwind and you won't be able to use it anymore!

Force breach speaks for itself, very useful against enemy Jedi, especially Malak.

Buffs:
Only one is important: Master Speed you can get Master valour on a companion if you are not doing a solo run, and take both stasis and insanity for example as CC. Energy shield can also be cast by a companion.

Final note: We don't take cure/heal because as this is a solo build we will be using medpacks which heal more than heal ever can! If you are playing with companions feel free to take this of course!

Final notes (Items)

This build will be hardest to play in the early levels. there are no decent ranged weapons on Taris, here is where you will rely on applying your sneak attack damage. Remember if you are stealth-ed ranged sneak attack damage only applies if you are within 10m of an enemy! Also make liberal use of your grenades, I even bought some extra ones from Larrim the merchant next to your hideout, he has an infinite supply of frag grenades. If you are playing with a party I recommend taking Carth and Zaalbar, and then Zaalbar and Bastilla when she becomes available. As they provide excellent meatshield (make them melee characters) and apply your sneak attack damage while they engage/tank the enemy.

Gun guide:
On Taris I ended up using Zaalbar's bow caster as it did the most damage as far as I could tell, I even used it for most of Dantooine. Aftyer Dantooine you want your first stop to be Tatooine and buy Jamoh Hogra's Carbine from Mic'Tunan'Jus Orgu the merchant next to where you dock the Ebon Hawk. This gun will carry you untill you can buy the Baragwin Assault Rifle from Suvam Tam after the 3rd star map. I highly recommend doing Kashyyk and Tatooine first as the loot is great and they are easy planets to do. Your last and final upgrade sill be after the 5th starmap, go to Suvam Tam once again and buy the Baragwin Heavy Repeating Blaster, This will be your BiS weapon which will let you blast everything to smithereens.

Items:
In general you want to prioritise Desxterity for your ranged weapon bonus (+5 Dex implant + Dex belt and + Dex Gloves) and wisdom for your spell casting: Qel Droma robes and circlet of Saaresh for most of the game, ofcourse Starforge robes when you get them are BiS.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/1663484178291507540/D741549F91BB22B98795CE7DFF92149030F7DD5F/?imw=256&&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false


If you have any questions leave a comment here or on the youtube video and you can find me live on: https://www.twitch.tv/billy_pilgrim_86

[Visionz23]

I will be playing this build. Take my steam points

[Kemian]

This is my main build. You don't need a dex 18 though. I know it's optimal to skip skill points, but I put 14 in everything except strength which I drop to 8. Although the skill points are far from needed, it's nice to have them. A 14 dex is by far good enough once you finish equipping the rest of your gear that boosts dex/wis.

You don't need Heavy, Rifles work just fine. That saves you one extra feat. The extra Int allows for recovery of the best mines in case you don't want to buy them.

Playing solo feels sacrilegious to me. Master Speed, Rapid Shot with your +4d6 sneak attack just doesn't feel like enough. Mission gets +9d6 sneak attack and she can duel wield x2 sith assassin pistols to help CC. Final character is T3 to duel wield another sith assassin pistol and hold out blaster. You put all your skill ups into Wis and/or Cha. I tend to go Wis > Wis > Cha > Cha > Wis. Max out light side points asap.