“Force Wizard” is my series on the Force & Destiny Careers’ Signature Abilities.
Unmatched Pursuit (UP) is the second Signature Ability (SA) featured in Savage Spirits, the Seeker Career sourcebook. Like Unexpected Demise, this SA aids the Force user in a hunt. Rather than giving you an edge in the confrontation at the end of the hunt, UP helps you track down your quarry, to confront them.
The once per session, out of turn incidental Basic UP allows you to spend 2 Destiny Points and select an enemy vehicle or character as your target. It must be within Medium range – planetary or personal scale. For up to three rounds, you can pace your target, which cannot elude you. This costs 2 strain.
UP upgrades go in a rough circle with the top tier Increase Range and Endurance as the possible “starting points.” The single Increase Range expands the distance a potential target can be out to the personal or planetary Long range band. Endurance, as usual, lessens the Strain cost by one per instance taken. Endurance has a second, 15XP, instance, allowing you to activate UP without taking Strain.
On the right of the top tier is Destiny (10XP), dropping the DP cost to one. Completing the top tier on the left is the first Duration upgrade, with the second on the bottom right tier. For each Duration you have, UP lasts an additional round, for a maximum of five rounds.
In addition to Duration and Endurance instances, UP’s bottom tier offers Maneuver (far left) and Frequency (near right) upgrades. If your target opts to use a maneuver to elude you by increasing distance, the Maneuver upgrade lets you reset the distance as an out of turn incidental. From the text (Savage Spirits, p. 35), “…the character may immediately perform a Move maneuver as an out of turn incidental to close the distance between them. This re-establishes the relative separation between the character and the target.”
The Frequency upgrade grants a second use in the same game session. This is useful if you need more than 3 – 5 rounds to reach your quarry, or somehow manage to lose them. Or, if you deal with your quarry quickly, you might have time to designate and start after another target.
What to buy? I consider a Destiny upgrade, when there’s one for your SA, to be a must-have. It leaves your party an extra Lightside DP to spend on something else. Not only can an extra DP spell the difference between success and failure on a quest, it allows a fellow-player a chance to shine by using one of their DP-fueled abilities. The way the UP tree is set up, buying the Destiny upgrade means you are also “paying” less Strain to activate it, since you have to buy an instance of Endurance to reach Destiny. Increase Range, Maneuver, and Frequency increase the chances, one way or another, that you can keep up with your target.
Is Unmatched Pursuit for you? Like Unexpected Demise, UP seems more aimed at Ataru Strikers (F&D), Hunters (F&D), and Executioners (Savage Spirits) than the other Seeker careers. Admittedly, most PCs with those specializations will probably pick Unexpected Demise, but UP isn’t a bad choice for them, especially combined with the Seek power (more on that below). Could there have been a more ideal SA for Hermit (Savage Spirits), Navigator (Savage Spirits), and Pathfinder (F&D) PCs? Probably, but UP still has its uses for those specs.
As I noted in “Force Wizard: Unexpected Demise,” sometimes Hermits are motivated to seek out and deal with an evil. Or, perhaps, someone has come to their “territory,” and stolen some artifact the Hermit is guarding. Or maybe they aren’t actually evil, just greedy treasure hunters who have unknowingly taken an artifact that would have been better let be and the Hermit has decided to retrieve it before it can wreak havok. Having UP will aid them in these quests.
Navigators and Pathfinders are even better suited than Hermits to help a party capture Darksiders or vile criminals, recover an artifact, or rescue innocents, since they are adept at tracking, survival, astrogation, and the like, even without their Force gifts. With UP as their Signature Ability, this PC can lead their allies straight to their target.
Unmatched Pursuit and Seek Force Power: A Force user who has bought into both UP and Seek is one formidable searcher. In some circumstances the two abilities and upgrades are complimentary. For example, UP can only target enemies and has Range limits, so would be no help in finding the missing prince (or holocron, starfighter prototype, etc.), especially if it’s unknown who took them.
But using Seek, which can locate anyone or anything, at any distance, can get the rescuers moving in the right direction. Since there is no limit on how often Seek can be used, a wielder with 1+ Magnitude upgrades (multiple activations allowed) can try repeatedly to get more details – maybe even a glimpse of the kidnapper. Meanwhile, other party members can find out more by other means (e. g., slicing, social checks, science). Once the party finds the name of a ship or being involved, and gets closer if necessary, then UP can be brought into play as well.
That’s not all a Force user with the UP SA who has also gone deep into the Seek power tree can do. Seek’s Mastery and bottom tier Control will be useful when you finally confront your quarry. The Mastery upgrade is comparable to the Basic Unexpected Demise, with both granting an auto-Triumph on combat checks, while that Control adds Pierce to attacks.
Unmatched Pursuit is a powerful SA, whether augmented by the Seek Force power or not. Come July, the Force Wizard will delve into My City, the first SA for Sentinels, from Endless Vigil. Until then, may the Force be with you!
Linda Whitson
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