“Force Wizard” is my series on the Force & Destiny Careers’ Signature Abilities.
The Unmatched Negotiation (UN) Signature Ability’s Base effect packs a diplomatic punch. For one round, the Force-user downgrades the difficulty of any social skill checks, except Leadership, they make. So this works with Charm, Coercion, Deception, and Negotiation. Not just once, but for all the Challenge Dice in the pool! It’s also an Incidental (but not out-of-turn), which adds flexibility. UN does have a Destiny upgrade.
That Destiny upgrade is on top tier right and can only be reached by the Duration upgrade to its left. This is one of three Durations (two 10XP and one 15XP) in the tree. Each adds +1 round to effect time, giving you up to 4 rounds free of the heartbreak of Despairs on nearly all your social checks. Not counting the Despairs rolled by your hapless fellow players…
But don’t despair. Two UN upgrades offer them some help too. Increase Effect grants your Engaged allies one downgrade apiece on all Charm, Coercion, Deception, and Negotiation checks they make during Unmatched Negotiation’s effect. Increase Range extends that benefit to allies within Medium range. Base plus Increase Effect plus Increase Range will put your party in a powerful position for any encounter with a lot of social checks. By the way, to get that combo you have bought at least 2 of the 3 Duration upgrades. (The only path is leftmost 10XP Duration > Increase Effect > 15XP Duration > Increase Range.)
There are just 2 other upgrades. The leftmost 15XP upgrade is Remove Setback, which does exactly what it says. It removes 1 Setback from any check affected by UN. This only applies to the Force-user’s checks, since the wording in the “fine print” (the text vs. the tree) is “the character removes.” It is a little situational but still worth considering as there are many things that can add Setback to social checks, from the NPC Mystic at the negotiating table using the Sense Advantage talent to a crimelord remembering your grandmother dumped his load of spice to being a species not on the best of terms with the host’s species (like Aqualish and Mon Cal).
The final upgrade on the right of the 15XP tier is Add Triumph. When the Force-user fails a Charm, Coercion, Deception, or Negotiation check while UN is in effect, an automatic Triumph is added to the result. This is good from a story perspective, since getting something good from a failure usually makes the narrative more interesting. There is some fine print, again. Like Remove Setback, it only applies to rolls by the Force-user, not allies. Also, the auto-Triumph only adds the Triumph effect; it’s not an additional Success.
As you can see, all the Unmatched Negotiation upgrades are tempting if your PC is into diplomacy or investigation. Or maybe they are just a “social butterfly” — or want others to believe that. Most of the 6 specializations are good fits. And you don’t have to put a lot of XP into the social skills or their linked ability scores to make good use of UN. The Base UN’s downgrading all red dice from all affected skill checks means your PC has a better chance of success even on opposed checks where the NPC has a higher rank in the opposing skill, or a high Presence or Willpower.
We’ll start on the Guardian SAs next month.May the Force be with you — in whatever winter holidays you celebrate and in 2021.
Linda Whitson
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