“Before making an attack with a Lightsaber weapon, the character may suffer 3 strain and increase the difficulty by 1. If he does so, he adds the secondary weapon’s base damage to that of his primary weapon, ignores Defense, and gains the Stun quality with a rating equal to his ranks in Lightsaber.”
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It was a great fun to read all this discussion i learned a lot about system and way to enhance it, but i have a really late but i think important question. Wouldn’t it be easier if Jar’Kai was a Signature Ability? If created like this you don’t need to create and balance a whole specialization while in the same time all you need to add is special talents like Jar’Dis or Twin Strikes. Also don’t need to add talents that are taken from all lightsaber specializations.
Signature Abilities must be balanced in their own special way, so it only defers the problem, rather than avoiding it. All Signature Abilities have a few basic features in common, none of which fit the goal of a “fighting style.” Instead, they are brief, circumstantial, powerful, once/twice-per-session effects that serve as an “ultimate version” of the character’s abilities. Jar’Kai fits the pattern of other Lightsaber Form specializations, and in order to operate as a standalone specialization, it requires those talents from other lightsaber specializations.
Hey guys 
Did you ever settle on a final pictured version?
The ball would be in @Gnost_Dural44’s court for that. After the changes we discussed since the last posted change, I’d think it was done, but he never shared a finished PDF.
Hello friends! It has been far, far too long since my last update on this thread. I deeply apologize for failing to deliver the final version of the tree when we were so close to the end. Truth be told, I got sidetracked by other homebrew projects (might post about those in the future) as well as a lack of active games which kind of killed my enthusiasm for my custom talent tree. But hey, new year new me, and it’s time I put my money where my mouth is and finish what I started in… 2023 (I honestly didn’t realize it had been that long XD). I am happy and proud to finally unveil Jar’Kai Adept Version 2.0!!!
Jar’Kai Adept (DRAFT 2.0).pdf (269.8 KB)
Ver 2.0 Changelog
- Removed FR requirement
- Reworded Jar’Kai Discipline for clarity
- Reworked Blade Shield to increase defense until the end of the user’s next turn, and removed its strain cost
- Reworked Twin Strike as a hard Lightsaber combat check that ignores enemy defense and gains the Stun quality with a rating equal to ranks in Lightsaber (Huge shout out to @P-47Thunderbolt for helping me develop this one from the ground up)
- Switched fourth tier Conditioned and Blade Shield positions (I dunno, it just felt right)
The 2.0 update consists of basically all of the changes we discussed throughout this thread. I’m very happy with how the tree has turned out, and I think it’s finally ready for some playtesting. Admittedly, part of the reason I was hesitant to post this update for so long was because I couldn’t get my group together to do some actual playtesting of the tree (or any other SWRPG games for that matter lol). While I can’t personally vouch for how well it plays in a real game scenario, I’m satisfied with the result and I would greatly appreciate if anyone with an active group was willing to test out the tree and let me know how it measures up. That being said, let me get to the new talent descriptions as they’re the meat of this update.
New Talent Text
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Jar’Kai Discipline: When making a combined combat check with two Lightsaber or Melee weapons, may add Force Dice up to the character’s Force Rating to avoid increasing the difficulty. When rolling in this way, spend two Force points to trigger a hit with secondary weapon
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Blade Shield: May perform the Blade Shield maneuver while wielding two Lightsaber or Melee weapons. The character increases their defense by an amount equal to ranks in Blade Shield until the end of their next turn. While this maneuver is active, the character cannot perform any attacks using their secondary weapon
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Twin Strike: Suffer 3 strain to perform the Twin Strike action while wielding two Lightsaber weapons, making a hard Lightsaber combat check. On a success, add the base damage of secondary weapon to the results. This attack ignores the opponent’s defense, and gains the Stun quality with a rating equal to the user’s ranks in Lightsaber
Even after we spent all of those replies discussing a succinct description for Twin Strike, I can freely admit that the one I landed on is slightly too wordy. In the end, I decided that being descriptive was more important to me than fitting the space. What matters is the mechanics, and I’m fully satisfied with how all of the talents work in gameplay. Twin Strike and Blade Shield definitely look a bit cramped in the final PDF, but that’s mostly because the site I used to create it is super wonky and poorly optimized.
On a side note, if anyone has a custom talent tree builder that they could recommend, I would greatly appreciate it. If I had an Adobe Acrobat subscription, I could probably at least insert the actual dice symbols into the tree (since I have the font for them downloaded), but I wasn’t ready to commit to that in case there was a better solution. If anyone has the capability of making the tree more visually appealing, you have my full blessing to do so! Graphic design is sadly not my passion 
With that, I release the tree to the wild! This was so much fun to work on, and I greatly appreciate @P-47Thunderbolt for keeping this discussion alive even during my long absence, and for essentially co-developing the tree with me with all of their great input. This project taught me a lot about this game and has made me even more excited to create for it. Now that I have a somewhat interested group (work in progress) I can hopefully test out this tree and experiment with a few of my other ideas.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to lurk here and indulge on everyone’s great ideas. It’s funny, I started this thread originally during a time when the SWRPG subreddit was down, but the community I found here has been far more insightful than the subreddit ever was. I look forward to continuing to discuss this game for the foreseeable future, and I appreciate all of you for indulging me on this little thought experiment. Peace!!
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Yeah, my wording introduced some mechanical flaws. It didn’t account for the nature of the secondary weapon, for one. However, the “Hard combat check” is irregular, and might circumvent some effects or introduce confusion.
Taking that basic structure, let’s see if I can improve it:
“Before making a standard Lightsaber attack while wielding two Lightsaber weapons, the character may perform the Twin Strike incidental, suffering 3 Strain and increasing the difficulty by one step. If he does so, he adds the secondary weapon’s base damage to that of his primary weapon, ignores Defense, and gains the Stun quality with a rating equal to his ranks in Lightsaber.”
Congratulations, I made it longer. I think it’s all-around clearer, though. How would I shorten it for the “short text”? Maybe something like:
“Suffer 3 Strain and increase the difficulty of the next Lightsaber combat check by 1. The attack adds the secondary weapon’s base damage, ignores Defense, and gains the Stun quality equal to the character’s ranks in Lightsaber.”
It’s about the same length as the description for Sniper Shot. We’re really doing a lot with Twin Strike. It’s three effects in one. I really like it, though, and think it represents the narrative well mechanically.
“While wielding two Lightsaber or Melee weapons, the character may perform the Blade Shield maneuver. Until the end of their next turn, they may not perform any attacks with the secondary weapon, but increase their Defense by a number equal to ranks in Blade Shield.”
“When making a combined combat check with two Lightsaber or Melee weapons, perform the Jar’Kai Discipline incidental; add Force Dice no greater than Force Rating and do not increase the difficulty. Spend two Force points to trigger a hit with the secondary weapon.”
It’s slightly longer, but more formal. For the short text:
"When making a combined Lightsaber or Melee combat check, add Force Dice no greater than Force rating and do not increase the difficulty. Spend two Force points to trigger a hit with the secondary weapon.
Compare short text of Saber Throw:
“Perform Saber Throw action; make Lightsaber combat check as ranged attack at target within medium range, adding Force dice no greater than Force rating. Must spend a Force Point and succeed to hit target; spend a Force point to have weapon return to hand.”