Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is considered by some to be one of the greatest video games of all time, and is still remembered fondly as one of the best Star Wars video games ever made. A KOTOR remake is currently in development, but there hasn't been any news of its progress for some time, with no indication of when players can expect it. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic famously draws on Dungeon and Dragon's d20 3e ruleset, offering round-based combat. This was successful at the time, and it resulted in a Star Wars game that had deep RPG systems and customization for characters that hadn't been seen in a Star Wars game before.
However, the rules for 3e were mechanically very complicated, and were streamlined by the time Dungeons and Dragons 5e was released to make the experience more accessible, putting greater emphasis on character-building and storytelling. With the KOTOR Remake comes the chance to implement the updated version of 5e, which should overall make for a more balanced game without losing its RPG qualities.
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Bringing 5e's Emphasis on Roleplaying and Party Synergy to KotOR's Remake
Class System and Progression
KOTOR's class system offers three base classes, then allows the player character to multiclass as a Jedi with three Jedi classes to choose from. These options are fairly limited, and there's no option to respec. KOTOR 2 offered three base classes, and six prestige classes, with the availability of the classes based on the player character's alignment. More Jedi and Sith classes, with subclasses for each, would create a more complex RPG system and character build.
One major flaw of KOTOR was the power gap between the Jedi and the rest of the party. While it makes sense in the lore that the Jedi would be more powerful than other members of the party, it resulted in them getting left on board the ship for most of the missions, resulting in missed content and opportunities for connection. In the remake, the party should be more balanced, with clear roles, and situations to use them, beyond the rescue operation.
Implementing the 2024 Player's Handbook's class rules, assigning clear rules and class limitations to the Jedi, and giving the other party members moments to shine, would be a great way to solve this problem. For example, Bastila's abilities are more suited to support rather than DPS, while other party members such as Canderous and HK-47 could serve as DPS and tanks.
Implementing 5e's Combat for KotOR
Turn-Based Combat
Assuming the KotOR remake aligns as closely with Dungeons and Dragons as its original, it should embrace turn-based combat. Baldur's Gate 3's success shows that turn-based combat can be popular, and KotOR should just go all the way rather than use the hybrid version used in KotOR. 5e's combat rules are streamlined to make combat more simple, and use advantage/disadvantage rather than stacking multiple bonuses.
Building on Skills
Rather than just assigning points to skills, the skill system could be overhauled to be simpler and more customizable. For example, the Repair and Computer Use skills could be streamlined into a single "Tech" skill tree, and the player could unlock different abilities and feats in the tree as they progress and level up. Certain classes should only have access to some of these skills, or they could be locked by attribute scores.
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