Is Star Wars Saga the D&D 4E “What If?”

Rob’s post on the 4E magic items got me thinking about something – the WOTC guys have stated publicly and often that Saga was a testing ground for a lot of the mechanics that they wanted to use for 4E, and if you look at the three systems together you can see a definite evolution. 3.5 to Saga to 4E.

But what if they had stopped with Saga and used that as the new 4E? Would that have made more people happy? Certainly Saga does some of the same things – condensed skills, encounter powers, more hit points overall. But there is none of the MMORPG terminology. And the multi-classing is still varied and exciting, which is a great love of the 3.5, er . . . lovers.

But looking at the systems together, I’m not sure that they could have applied what works in Saga to D&D, strangely enough, because of the genre. Star Wars has a few inherent advantages that make it an easier system to balance.

No magic items. Saga is not a loot based game, therefore loot has little impact on the mechanics.

No spell casters, only Jedi. There is a smaller power curve in Saga and no need for healers (actually, the lack of healing may be a flaw in Saga, but whatever). The only balance issue was the Jedi.

Fewer Monsters. Most opponents are NPCs. Again, the curve is easier to control.

But besides these genre advantages, there are some changes that Saga made that could have made it into the 4E that could have been -

Multi-classing. Multi-classing and prestige classing got away from the designers in 3.5. It was never intended to be so abused. But players liked it, so they abused it. Can’t blame them. Well in Saga they recognized this and they designed the system around the idea of deep multi-classing. There is greater diversity, but less breakage. Well see how well this holds up as more supplement books come out but for now this is a big advantage over 3.5 and maybe even 4E.

Condition Tracks – A nifty little piece of Saga combat is the Condition Track. One hand it is yet another thing to keep track of in combat, but on the other it opens up a whole new tactical arena. Can’t whittle through that opponent’s butt load of hit points? Tire him out instead, knock him five steps down the track instead and watch him fall like a sack of bantha biscuits.

Lots of races, fewer bonuses. – There are lot of player options for races, so no one feels left out (hello gnomes!). And the bonuses are more in line with each other, usually taking the form of a stat bonus or minus and re-rolls to certain skill checks. Neat. Clean. Varied in flavor but mechanically even.

So, is Saga the 4E that could have been? That’s something I’ll be thinking about as we take the new D&D out for a spin.

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