This build is the result of many hours of theorycrafting and experimentation and almost 20 years of being a KOTOR fan!

Objective: Create the most powerful character build possible, capable of any challenge including solo runs on Impossible difficulty

Offensive Strategy

Ultimately to win a battle we must destroy the enemy and so our ability to do this is of primary importance.

Key principles of our offensive strategy:

• Output as much damage as possible
  
• Be accurate enough to avoid losing damage to misses
  
• Destroy the enemy as quickly as possible
  
• Bypass any defenses the enemy may have (shields/force powers)

Focusing on our offensive power has the secondary benefit of protecting ourselves from damage as the enemy is unable to attack us if he is dead.

The best way to output a lot of damage quickly is with melee weapons such as vibroblades and lightsabers, these weapons have the highest base damages in the game and can be upgraded to further increase damage and accuracy, additionally and most importantly these weapons scale with our Strength attribute - Every Strength modifier increases Attack by +1 and Damage by +1.

Ranged weapons and force powers are unable to scale in damage like melee weapons can and so to output as much damage as possible it is necessary to create a character that excels in melee combat.

Defensive Strategy

While offense is of primary importance we must not neglect our defence otherwise we may perish before we can defeat the enemy.

Key principles of our defensive strategy:

• Mitigation
  
• Mitigation
  
• Mitigation

Avoiding damage via mitigation is the key to surviving impossible difficulty!

Sources of mitigation:

Defence (AC) - Our first line of defence, the enemy cannot damage you if you he cannot hit you. If our defence is higher than our opponent's attack roll they will miss their attack (Unless they roll a natural 20)

Lightsaber Deflection - An ability unique to lightsabers that allows them to deflect and reflect damage from blasters - 「This feat allows a character with an equipped lightsaber to deflect blaster bolts at any time. When a character is fired upon, an opposed roll is made against the attack. If the result is greater than the attack roll, the blaster bolt is deflected. If the attack is beaten by 10 or more, the bolt is deflected back at the enemy.」

Improved Energy Resistance - 「This power absorbs the first 15 points of damage from sonic, fire, cold, electrical and energy attacks.」Significantly cuts down the damage we take from any kind of elemental attack which comprise the majority of the damage in this game (lightsabers, blasters and grenades)

Brejiks's Armband and Breijik's Belt - 「Absorbs the first 5 points of damage from Slashing and Bludgeoning attacks (respectively)」These items absorb melee damage and are always active while equipped (Vibroblades do Slashing damage and animals/beasts do Bludgeoning damage)

Improved Toughness - 「Absorbs the first 2 points of damage from any source」This does not stack with the above but protects against any other damage type not covered (Piercing/Poison/Force powers/Universal) etc.

Energy Shields - An extremely underrated item type that allows the user to absorb set a amount of damage before using up a charge, if possible always use these in conjunction with the mitigation methods above, in this way Resistances cut off the first X points of damage and then any extra damage gets absorbed into the shield, this will ensure you will get the most optimal use out of shields.

Soldier: 7
A battle-ready fighter with no equal in combat.
Jedi Guardian: 13
Jedi Guardians battle against the forces of evil and the dark side. They focus on combat training and masterful use of the lightsaber.

The balance of Soldier 7 and Guardian 13 is purposeful and calculated to maximise the number of feats and force points/powers. Soldier 8 and Guardian 12 is also fine but slightly weaker as you will lose a force power and a few force points.

Soldier:
The Soldier is the most powerful base class for a melee fighter, it gains +1 base attack per level and +10VP per level, it additionally gains a feat every level and feats are essential for a powerful character. Additionally the Soldier has Treat Injury as a class skill and Medium/Heavy Armour specialisation allowing us to wear Light Battle Armour on Taris which will be our best in slot on that planet.

Jedi Guardian:
Very similar to the Soldier but with the addition of force powers to further augment our melee prowess, the only class to have access to the [Force Jump] and [Weapon Specialisation: Lightsaber] feats.

Starting Attributes

Strength: 16 ✦✦✦✦✦
Dexterity: 14 ✦✦✦
Constitution: 10 ✦✦
Intelligence: 8
Wisdom: 14 ✦✦✦✦
Charisma: 14 ✦✦✦✦

Attributes Strategy

Strength - Determines our ability to successfully hit the enemy and increases our damage, our best stat as this build relies on killing enemies quickly. The only stat worth starting with >14, put all 5 points you gain from leveling up into Strength.

Dexterity - A secondary stat for a melee character, since Strength is our higher attribute Dexterity wont determine our chance to hit but will instead only increase our Defence. It may be tempting to drop this lower but as a Jedi you will be wearing robes instead of armour and so you will need Defence to not be squishy, raise this to 14 at character creation and ignore it after.

Constitution - Increases the VP we gain every level, generally an overrated stat because you only feel the effects of this at higher character levels and because of our class and feat choices we will have plenty of VP even without putting points in Constitution. 10 starting Constitution is fine even on Impossible difficulty.

Intelligence - Dump stat, unneeded for this build, with 8 Intelligence and our class choices we will have 1 skill point every level which will still allow us to max out Treat Injury which is the #1 skill for this build.

Wisdom - Our second most important stat, every Wisdom modifier increases our FP/level, Force Power DCs, our Will save and our Treat Injury skill rank. This is very important because the Jedi Guardian Class has very low FP/level and no bonuses to DCs and so we need to compensate with a high Wisdom so we can use all of our force powers effectively. Start with 14 points into this great stat.

Charisma - Essentially the same as Wisdom but without the bonus to our Will save or Treat Injury, starting also with 14 points which it will stay at because there are very few ways to increase our Charisma past character creation.

Treat Injury ✦✦✦✦✦
The best skill in the game! Especially for our close combat character

Basic medpacs heal 10 vitality points + Wisdom modifier + user's skill in Treat Injury.


Advanced medpacs heal 20 vitality points + Wisdom modifier + (2 x user's skill in Treat Injury).


Life support packs heal 30 vitality points + Wisdom modifier + (3 x user's skill in Treat Injury).

As you can see, the higher level medkits multiply the user's skill in Treat Injury meaning at high levels you will be healing for a ton of VP.

At level 20 with a Wisdom of 21 an Advanced Medkit will heal for 71 VP and a Life Support Pack will heal for 94 VP.

We will not be taking the Cure or Heal force powers (Treat Injury is better) and there is no natural health regeneration in the game outside of implants so Medkits will be our only way to heal damage making the Treat Injury skill absolutely essential.

Other skills: We only have the skill points for one skill but as a thought experiment the next best skill to take would be Persuade if we had one extra skill, or Awareness + Demolitons if we had two extra skills.

This feat progression is highly optimised and recommended but if you want you can replace at Level 2 with and then take at Level 5 and at Level 14 instead of Power Attack.

Level 1: Two-Weapon Fighting I
Level 2: Weapon Focus: Melee Weapons
Level 3: Implant Level 1
Level 4: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
Level 5: Improved Power Attack
Level 6: Implant Level 2
Level 7: Toughness
Level 8: Master Two-Weapon Fighting
Level 9: None
Level 10: Weapon Focus: Lightsaber
Level 11: None
Level 12: None
Level 13: Weapon Specialisation: Lightsaber
Level 14: Master Power Attack
Level 15: None
Level 16: Implant Level 3
Level 17: None
Level 18: None
Level 19: Improved Toughness
Level 20: Master Toughness

Absolutely Essential

Burst of Speed / Knight Speed / Master Speed ✦✦✦✦✦


The most powerful buff in the game, +2 Attacks per round is unstoppable and the +4 to Defence is just icing on the cake to make sure you wont get hit while outputting ridiculous damage, max this as soon as possible. Lasts 36 seconds.

Energy Resistance / Improved Energy Resistance ✦✦✦✦✦


The other most powerful buff in the game, Damage Resistance 15/- to Energy, Sonic, Fire, Cold and Electrical renders blaster fire futile and severely cuts down damage from grenades and lightsabers, it lasts a full 120 seconds so keep this active at all times.

Excellent

Force Valor / Knight Valor / Master Valor ✦✦✦✦


A powerful buff that increases every attribute by +5 which improves your character in every way, with this you don't need to worry about odd-numbered attributes because this buff will make them even. Although this buff is great it only lasts for 20 seconds so it's sometimes difficult to make full use of it.

Stun / Stasis / Stasis Field ✦✦✦✦


A very powerful offensive ability, enemies that are stunned cannot attack and suffer a -4 Defence penalty from debilitation, especially good at final rank where Stasis Field can paralyze entire armies at once. What is often overlooked is the effect this has if resisted (with the Fortitude save), even if this force power is resisted the enemy suffers the -4 Defence penalty and is slowed! That's right, this ability is good even if the enemy resists it!

Situational

Force Resistance / Force Immunity ✦✦✦


With Force Resistance and Force Immunity you have about a 25%/50% chance of resisting all harmful force powers targeted at you, although good on paper there aren't that many difficult fights where you fight difficult force users. There are some other ways of resisting force powers (Items with the Immunity:Mind-Affecting trait) making the value of this force power dubious but still okay.

Force Suppression / Force Breach ✦✦✦


A very niche ability and basically only useful against Darth Malak where you can cancel his own buffs and in that situation it is quite useful, as it only costs 2 force power points it's often worth picking this up near the end of the game.

Not Recommended

Cure / Heal ✦✦


Treat Injury heals more points without costing any FP, this is more of a convenience power and since as a Guardian we don't have many force powers or force points it's a luxury we can't really afford.

Best in slot on the Endar Spire




Combat Suit - Defense Bonus: 4
Longsword - Damage: Physical (slashing), 1-12

Best in slot on Taris




Light Battle Armor - Defense Bonus: 7
Echani Ritual Brand - Damage: Physical (slashing), 3-13, Attack Modifier: +1
Brejik's Arm Band - Damage Resistance: Resist 5/- vs. Slashing
Brejik's Belt - Damage Resistance: Resist 5/- vs. Bludgeoning
Nerve Enhancement Package - Immunity: Mind-Affecting
Verpine Headband - Saves: Will +3

Note: Brejik's Arm Band stays equipped for the rest of the game

Best in slot on Dantooine - Start




Davik's War Suit - Defense Bonus: 8
Double-Bladed Lightsaber - Damage: Energy, 2-20
Brejik's Belt - Damage Resistance: Resist 5/- vs. Bludgeoning
Eriadu Strength Amplifier - Strength: +2
Retinal Combat Implant - Immunity: Critical Hits
Verpine Headband - Saves: Will +3

Best in slot on Dantooine - End




Jedi Knight Robe - Defense Bonus: 2
Double-Bladed Lightsaber - Damage: Energy, 2-20 + Rubat + Sigil
Eriadu Strength Amplifier - Strength: +2
CNS Strength Enhancer - Saves: All +2 Strength: +2
Retinal Combat Implant - Immunity: Critical Hits
Verpine Headband - Saves: Will +3

Best in slot Pre-Leviathan




Qel-Droma Robes - Defense Bonus: 5 Wisdom: +2 [Restricted to: Light Side]
Double-Bladed Lightsaber - Damage: Energy, 2-20 + Solari + Krayt Pearl
Eriadu Strength Amplifier - Strength: +2
CNS Strength Enhancer - Saves: All +2 Strength: +2
Sith Regenerator - Regeneration: 2
Circlet of Saresh - Wisdom: +2 [Restricted to: Light Side]

Best in slot Pre-Star Forge




Double-Bladed Lightsaber - Damage: Energy, 2-20 + Heart of the Guardian
or
Baragwin Assault Blade x2 - Damage: Physical/Energy/Sonic 6-36
Dominator Gauntlets - Strength: +5
CNS Strength Enhancer - Saves: All +2 Strength: +2
Sith Regenerator - Regeneration: 2
Circlet of Saresh - Wisdom: +2 [Restricted to: Light Side]

Best in slot on the Star Forge




Star Forge Robes - Defense Bonus: 5 Saves: All +2 Wisdom: +5
Baragwin Assault Blade x2 - Damage: Physical/Energy/Sonic 6-36
Dominator Gauntlets - Strength: +5
CNS Strength Enhancer - Saves: All +2 Strength: +2
Sith Regenerator - Regeneration: 2
Circlet of Saresh - Wisdom: +2 [Restricted to: Light Side]

• You can't actually die on the Endar Spire so don't use any medpacks or grenades.
  
  
• Trask Ulgo is the physical incarnation of a deity, that's why he can break the 4th wall.
  
  
• Try to use all of your grenades on Taris because they are only powerful early game with the exception of Thermal Detonators.
  
  
• A lightside character is slightly more powerful because of the items that only a lightside character can use, however a darkside character will always be richer.
  
  
• Adrenal Stimulants are amazing and you should always buy them.
  
  
• The promised land Rukil talks about in the Taris Undercity is actually real.
  
  
• Always have a few Antidote Kits because poison really lowers your stats.
  
  
• Bioware originally planned for you to be able to romance Mission Vao but they cut it.
  
  
• Dueling is actually better than Two-Weapon Fighting for a non-minmaxed character.
  
  
• Power Attack and Flurry are so close in effectiveness they are almost exactly the same.
  
  
• Canderous is the most powerful party member.
  
  
• Frag grenades and frag mines do Piercing damage, wearing a mandalorian energy shield is the only way to protect against Piercing
  
  
• Don't let Twitter find out about the age gap between the player character and Bastila.
  
  
• Constitution is a much better stat in the next game where your level can go past 20.
  
  
• Adhesive grenades cannot be resisted.
  
  
• Carth is the most annoying companion and also the least loyal to you.
  
  
• If you max out your lightside points you gain a constant +3 Strength as a Guardian.
  
  
• The Force is inherently evil which is why it takes willpower to not turn to the dark side.
  
  
• Each class has a different height, with Soldiers being the tallest and Scoundrels the shortest.
  
  
• The peaceful option regarding the Sand People isn't necessarily the "good option".
  
  
• The Genoharadan quests are really fun and worth doing if you haven't done them before.
  
  
• If you offer to deliver a strange box only open it if you're good at riddles.
  
  
• Gizka are cute and adorable.
  
  
• If your enemy is using a energy shield consider switching to a physical damage weapon.
  
  
• Skills are a lot more useful and important in the second game.
  
  
• Sell items to the merchant at the Yavin Station for many more credits than usual.
  
  
• Any credits you find in the Unknown World are useless because you can't spend them.
  
  
• Sleheyron was supposed to be a major planet but was cut during development.
  
  
• Persuasion is actually a dice roll and some persuasion checks can be repeated until success.
  
  
• It's almost impossible to successfully persuade a Hutt.
  
  
• Never overload a terminal you are using.
  
  
• Pazaak is inherently unfair because you are forced to go first.