Whooops, math error on my part. Or maybe I was looking at the date for something else. Good catch.
Oh sure - Atton has more of the sneaky type of combat pretty much without a doubt - but he pays for it in his specialty with the more disciplined forms - his Echani knowledge, his saber skills, he's good with them but won't hold a candle to someone like Brianna in that regard. In many ways it's a tradeoff in one direction or the other.
I mean, there's a narrative reasoning for both. Atton imo also has mechanics going for him, and incredibly useful one's at that. I think an advantage against the Sith at this stage in the game is being massively understated.
It would be useful, yes, it's just Brianna's advantage is 'always on' so to speak, regardless of who our guardians are fighting.
To be honest, while Bastila does have Battle Meditation and some leadership... that's basically all she has going for her so far as this position goes - Taris was her first military command iirc.
The issue I have with Brianna's is that her advantage is focused on a single sect of our entire order; I really don't want a sole bonus to them and only them. A permanent advantage to everyone against the most dangerous enemy we'll face, along with force users in general is what I consider more useful long and short term.
Her sect is kind of the wheelhouse of the battlemaster though. We'll face the Sith yes, but not every day, on every mission and field, so it'll be largely a luck based advantage. Brianna, we just know we have permanently better Guardians and Weaponmasters availale when considering who to throw at a problem - we're not relying on the dice falling the right way - it's a perpetual advantage, which is tactically and strategically more flexible.
Guardians and WM aren't the only forces involved in battle; Sentinels and Consular's participate and we've seen in every mission that Guardians aren't the only type we have, in fact we have an overwhelming number of Sentinel's. A bonus for our Guardian's currently encompasses Brianna and Bao-Dur if I recall; eventually we'll have more but as it is, that's all. Meanwhile Sith and Dark Jedi could spring up at a moments notice. That's the short term. Long term? There's a darkside presence out there that could very well be a Sith Empire.
That was Atton speaking? Damn, I thought it was Kador sassing Atton. He did something and then unmarked dialogue was spoken on the same line, so I just attributed it to him.
That... huh. Why hadn't I thought of that?
It's always a good idea to assume that there's a reason people don't do a thing in quests I'm running. Admittedly, sometimes that reason is "because holy fuck is that not a good look for the Jedi, for truly innumerable reasons" but sometimes the reason is harshly practical, as well.
That won't always be the case though, and it's a bit doubtful the sentinel disbalance will last forever. We are also far from helpless against Sith just because we don't have Atton's bonus. Sith will be around, but hardly always, and its usefulness against our current main enemy, Czerka, is going to be limited.
Hard to say for certain to be honest. Brianna's not as skullduggery-oriented as Atton but she knows her way around blasters and other military techniques. She's just not nearly as far down the unorthodox route as Mira or Atton. I'll also note that if the main core of the Jedi changes to be Atton style, then Jedi-killer techniques will simply start changing to be geared more towards specifically Atton's style.
By that same vein of logic, we won't always be free of Sith presence. In fact it's highly likely we see a resurgence of them in the future. As for usefulness against Czerka, once again we have next to no guardian based Jedi for the time being.
Three isn't next to no - and they'll always have the bonus. Even when the Sith were everywhere in the triumvirate days we were fighting Sith every day. It's a useful bonus, but it's hardly the end of the world if we don't have it, and it does absolutely nothing for our non-Sith enemies, of which we have many and will always have many. With Brianna we get upgrades on a tool to deploy - we get agency rather than just hoping our encounters are sufficiently Sith-stacked to get the bonus.
It has occurred to me before that Jedi carrying stunners might make sense. Non-lethal weapons fit into the ethos and are a good alternative to maiming criminals with lightsabers, they would give the Jedi a less situational ranged option than their two standbys (blaster deflection and telekinesis of whatever's handy), and stun bolts have great potential for distracting lightsaber wielders. Forcing an opponent to have to keep dodging bolts they can't deflect could be really useful in a duel.
Eh, I get it. I don't want the Jedi to become glorified supersoldiers either. I just think it's good to have options, and that some traditions are, regardless of the practical idea that started them, blown out of proportion by time. Like, as far as I'm aware the only reason everyone didn't die in that assassination attempt is a Jedi wasn't carrying just a lightsaber. That's a big deal, at least to me, and an indicator that the Jedi might want to branch out to make it harder to lock down counter-tactics for them.
There are a few counterarguments to this, so I'm just going to say them all.
