Author Topic: Akk Dog Follower (Korunnai Adept Talent Tree) Underpowered?  (Read 135 times)

FakDendor

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Akk Dog Follower (Korunnai Adept Talent Tree) Underpowered?
« on: September 23, 2018, 07:23:58 am »
I've been looking at the Korunnai Adept talent tree for one of my players, and I found it underwhelming - mostly because it relies on the follower system. With it, you gain a bonded Akk Dog companion. But using the follower system the Akk dog only has 10 + the PC level worth of HP (a maximum of 30 if the PC is level 20, which of course the PC rarely is).

[Side note: the Akk Dog has a Con of 12, but nothing in the follower system states that it uses the Con modifier for HP. Thoughts?]

Aside from a low HP, the Akk dog does a measly 1d6+3 slashing damage. This can be raised slightly by investing another talent that gives the Akk Dog the Powerful Charge feat, which could raise the damage to a maximum of 1d6+13 at level 20, or 1d6+8 at level 10.

And that's it. While the Akk dog can attack in concert with your regular attacks, adding a little bit of damage on top of your own, it's pitifully easy to remove from the field. While the talent ensures you can receive another follower, eventually the PC is going to get fed up with a revolving door of replacement bond partners.

In the canon (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Akk_dog/Legends), Akk dogs are larger than landspeeders, can crush durasteel with their jaws, and shrug off the effects of lightsabers!

Am I missing something about the Akk dog follower that would make them more useful/survivable in combat?

If not, could we workshop a fix that would let my player take the Korunnai Adept route and be more useful? (with appropriate investment, of course)

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StevenO

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Don't forget that Follows get DEFENSE SCORES that are tied to your heroic level which can provide a big boost there to help offset the lack of hitpoints.

You get to choose Follower type and that probably means a bonus to STR or DEX (doubt you do Utility) which should help Attack/damage or Defense.

Larger that landspeeders is possibly overhyped; I'm reading as long as landspeeders which means that a tail could greatly increase the length of a large creature to meet that description.  Crushing Durasteel I'll admit can be seen as nearly impossible when damage is 1d6 although as a LARGE creature it's bite should be 1d8; that with a +3 bonus from STR could overcome the DR 10 of durasteel and if you apply half the "beast level" to damage as well that would push it higher; I once thought a single attack could double STR mod for damage but don't see that anywhere right now.  Shrugging of Lightsabers is just saying it has Natural Armor which is does and which still does apply even as a follower.

While I'm not impressed with Followers overall the Akk has its uses.  The Trainer talent makes it an extension of you that can do as much as many other talents do so while it would hurt to replace it frequently it has its uses.

Now are there any stats for the Akk Dog that are NOT tied to being a follower anywhere?
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fairytalejedi

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I haven't used combat followers, per se, so I can't speak from personal experience about how well they function. I would say that follower talents shouldn't be beefed up too much in terms of combat, because they should be in the ballpark of other talents. Considering that general combat talents give a +1 to attack to +2 to damage, the follower talents shouldn't be hugely in excess of that, just a little in excess (since a follower can be put out of action unlike a general talent that applies directly to the PC).

The biggest problem with akk dog followers is story-based. Kind of hard to explain how replacements keep turning up when they're only native to one planet, and bonding with one shouldn't really happen overnight.

Personally I think the best use for followers is as utility droids, though this requires stretching the follower rules just a bit. They're not usually involved in character scale combat, but they're very handy in starship encounters because the pilot PC generally uses just one action per turn, leaving the follower utility droid two swift actions per turn to help buff the ship. Just a side note. :)
« Last Edit: September 24, 2018, 09:01:26 pm by fairytalejedi »
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