This build is based on the idea of making an extremely overpowered melee character. I've used this build in over half my runs- out of nearly 200 hours of gameplay- and it works on every difficulty, easily defeating all enemies and bosses.

This build has mostly been tested with the Restored Content Mod, and may preform slightly differently when not using it.

Attributes: The starting attributes I generally use are 16 Strength, 12 Dexterity, 18 Constitution, 8 Intelligence, 8 Wisdom, and 8 Charisma. While this leaves a character's personal skills lacking, it makes them have extremely high survivability and damage. It also allows the use of every single implant in the game at 1st level.



Alternate Attributes: Alternatively, you can remove 2 in Constitution, and due to those two points taking 3, use the remaining 6 to prevent you from having negatives on Charisma, Intelligence, and Wisdom. However, I don't reccomend it, as only the Wisdom one would have an effect, which can easily be overshadowed by getting the Force power Force Immunity.



Skills: There aren't many skill options due to the -1 intelligence modifier. The only one worth taking is Treat Injury, as it is practically required. Without Treat Injury, Med-Packs will only heal 10-40HP, which won't do well against late game enemies hitting for far more than that.









Feats: Feats are the most useful gain from levels for Guardian characters, meaning there are a few distinct skills to get. The bonuses granted from ones used in this build are focused on dealing and taking damage.

Toughness: This skill increases HP gains per level, and works retroactively. If gained at level 5, for instance, it gives 5 HP; Not 1. At second level it lowers damage taken when taking more than 20 points. While it sounds like it only helps against criticals at first, in the late game nearly every hit is weakened by this skill. The Master tier of this grants 2HP per level rather than 1.

Two-Weapon Fighting: This skill decreases penalties for dual-wielding Melee weapons. Since dual-wielded one-handed weapons are the best damage dealer in the game, this removes their lower chances to hit. I personally get this first, as I go for dual-wielding the moment the game lets me. The Jedi Weapon-Master Prestige Class allows for 6 levels of this feat rather than 3.

Weapon Proficency/Focus/Specalization: Lightsaber: While only useful once in posession of a lightsaber, this skill gives a higher chance to hit and higher damage with lightsabers. At maximum, the bonus is +1* to hit and +2 damage. Jedi Weapon Master and Sith Marauder prestige classes get this at Focus-level for free, and can gain Superior Weapon Focus: Lightsaber, granting an extra +3 to hit.

*Note: Chances to hit are calculated by a random 1-20 number, in addition to your +to hit chance. If this number is higher than the enemy's defense, your attack hits.

Inner Strength & Ignore Pain: Granted to Jedi Weapon Master and Sith Marauder Prestige Classes, this reduces all damage take by -5%, -10% at level 2, and -15% at level 3.

At rank 15, once you talk to Kreia, you get a free level and a Prestige Class. With this build, the optimal choice is Jedi Weapon Master or Sith Marauder. Both can unlock Superior Two-Weapon Fighting and Superior Weapon Focus: Lightsaber, each granting highly increased chances to hit with Lightsabers. These skills are highly recommended.

Jedi Weapon Master

The Jedi Weapon Master focuses on two-weapon lightsaber fighting. Over 15 levels, the Jedi Weapon Master will gain Deflect, Greater Prestige Sense, Increase Melee Damage, and Inner Strength.

Deflect: Grants +1 to reflect blaster bolts, increasing by 1 ever 2 levels.
Greater Prestige Sense: Grants 2 defense, plus 2 per every 5 levels.
Inner Strength: Take -15% damage from all sources.
Increase Melee Damage: +6 damage when using Melee or Unarmed.

Pictured to the left, Cin Drallig was a Jedi Weapon Master in the Clone Wars.





The Sith Marauder focuses on pure damage. They gain Greater Prestige Sense, Increase Combat Damage, Ignore Pain, and Fury.

Greater Prestige Sense: Grants 2 defense, plus 2 per every 5 levels.
Increase Combat Damage: +6 damage on all attacks.
Ignore Pain: Take -15% damage from all sources.
Fury: Force ability that grants +6 strength, +3 HP per level, +3 to Fortitude and Will saves, +2 Attacks per round, and -6 Defense for 60 seconds.

Flurry, Critical Strike, or Power Attack?

This question tends to be one that can be rather divisive. While each is powerful, getting more than one of them is impractical due to not being able to get some vital skills, hurting your run in the process.






Flurry: Flurry, at max rank, grants a single extra attack per turn with no downsides. Normally you can get 2 attacks per turn while dual-wielding, so a third is a 50% increase in attacks. However, when using Master Force Speed (+2 Attacks per turn) and the final form, Juyo, (+1 Attack per turn) it only increases it from 5 to 6, a mere 20% increase rather than the damage that other skills can bring.

Critical Strike: Critical Strike decreases your Defense for a round in trade for extra chance to crit. At max rank, you have -5 defense and a x4 critical chance when using it. While -5 defense is a lot, the high HP of this build makes it easy to manage in trade for a massive damage increase. While personally I reccomend this the most, it isn't required, as the defense hit is rather massive and makes the game much riskier.

Power Attack: At max rank, grants +12 damage on each attack that turn, each with -3 to hit. While the -3 can make a differense, it's not that bad with a fully upgraded weapon. Using Force Speed and Juyo with dual-wielded weapons, this is an entire +60 damage a round if each attack hits. It's also not a bad thing that you do acrobatic moves with every attack.

Lightsaber Forms
Shii-Cho: Determination: +1 chance to hit, +3 defense against all targets except the one you are currently targetting. Useful against large groups, and has no downsides.
All Jedi were proficient in this form.

Makashi: Contention: +3 to hit against enemies using lightsabers, +3 damage, +2 to resist force powers, and -5 blaster bolt deflection. Useful against force users like Sith or Jedi, but extremely ineffective against Blaster-using enemies like Droids or most standard enemies.
This form was used by Count Dooku, and was why he was so effective against Jedi.

Soresu: Resilience: +2 defense vs current target, +4 blaster bolt deflection, -1 chance to land a Critical hit. While effective at survival, the lowered Critical chance can severly hamper Crit-based builds.
This form was used by Obi-Wan Kenobi, and is why he was able to do things such as deflecting 20 lightsaber strikes a second from General Grevious.

Ataru: Aggression: -2 Defense, +5 Defense vs current target, -4 Blaster deflection, and +1 Crit chance. While extremely effective against single targets, it easily allows large groups to overwhelm you with blaster fire. I tend to use this form until Juyo is unlocked.
This form was used by Anakin Skywalker, and was the reason his style was so powerful and acrobatic.

Shien: Perserverance: +2 chance to hit, -5 defense vs current target, +2 Blaster Deflection, +1 Critical multiplier. This is best used against multiple blaster-using enemies, but also grants better damage on criticals.
Galen Marek, also known as Starkiller, tended to use Shien.

Niman: Moderation: +1 chance to hit, +1 defense, +1 blaster deflection, +1 vs force powers. This form has no downsides, but only small upsides, making it rather weak overall.
Masters Kavar, Vrook Lamar, and Zez-Kai Ell from Knights Of The Old Republic 2 were all Niman instructors.

Juyo: Feriocity: -4 Defense, +2 Defense vs current target, -4 vs Force Powers, +1 attacks per turn, x4 chance to Critically hit. This form is excellent for pure damage and crit builds, and tends to be considered the best for Guardians and Weapon Masters/Marauders.
Mace Windu made his own version of this, Vaapad, which required the user to enjoy fighting, meaning it was difficult for a Jedi to master due to threat of the Dark Side.

Early Game: In the very early game, you will likely use a single Vibrocutter. At the end of the first planet, you can swap to dual-wielding, but it's recommended to have the Feat Dual-Weapon Wielding. Blasters are not reccomended, as it makes only does 1d8-1d12 damage (depending on it being a pistol or rifle) instead of melees that will do far more due to the +damage from strength. At the begining of runs, the Vibrocutter does 5-14 (1d10+4) with this build, making it much more reliable.

Mid-Game: On Telos, the best option is normally a Vibrosword with a Vibroblade in the off-hand due to the balanced (smaller penalty to hit in the off-hand) stat. After you leave Telos, it is very important to get a Lightsaber as soon as possible. I recommend going to Dantooine for this. By the later half ot the mid-game, you should have dual lightsabers, either 2 standard ones or 1 standard and 1 short saber.

Late-Game: By the end of the game, I tend to use 2 standard lightsabers, but 1 standard and 1 short works as well. The most important part about weapons at this point is modifications, which I will go over in their own section. When choosing between a standard saber vs a short saber, the differences are +0-4 damage on the standard one, and +2 to hit with the short one. With chances to hit not being an issue late-game with the right skills, the standard one is normally better. A dual-bladed lightsaber can be used, but tends to be weaker than two seperate sabers.

The Workbench is a feature I see as one of the most important for increasing your power late-game. It allows for easily tripling the damage of weapons, and shouldn't be underestimated.

Note: NONE of the important items can be crafted by the player character with this build. I recommend ranking up Bao-Dur and T3-M4 to be able to craft all the needed modifications.

Power Cell:
Ultimate Diatium Energy Cell: +5 damage to the lightsaber. Requires 29 Computer Use and 495 Components to craft. Out of all the Cells, this is the most reliable for damage.
Telgorn Jolt Cell Mk.3: +1d8 Electric damage to the lightsaber. Requires 27 Demolition and 437 Components to craft. The average of a 1-8 roll is 5, meaning it's a more risk/reward version of the Diatium cell. The Electric damage can also bypass some shields and resistances that the Diatium cell does not.

Emitter:
Expert Deflection Emitter: +4 Blaster Bolt Deflection and +1 Defense. Requires 21 Repair and 230 Components. The main draw is the Defense, meaning it's harder for enemies to hit you, but the gain is very minimal.
Expert Fencing Emitter: +2 Defense and +3 Damage. Requires Repair 27 and 407 Components. Since blaster bolts should be the least of your worries late-game, this is likely the best Emitter at that time.

Lens:
Pontite Lens: +2-12 damage, +1 to hit. Requires 27 Awareness and 430 Components. Out of all the Lenses available, this one has the highest possible damage.
Enhanced Byrothsis Lens: +3 to hit, -4 Blaster Bolt Deflection +4 damage. Requires 29 Awareness and 450 components. While lowering chances to deflect blaster bolts, this highly increases chances to hit and grants some good damage.
Improved Beam Gem Lens: Keen, +2 damage, +1 to hit. Requires 21 Computer Use and 240 components. Keen makes getting crits much easier, lowering the number required to hit a critical. Normally to get a critical you need a roll of 19-20, but with this, it becomes 17-20. Along with Master Critical Strike, the crit range goes to 4-20 (if my calculations on that are correct) meaning that 80% of attacks are criticals rather than 10%.

Note: While not all modifications are shown, they tend to be ones that are extremely weak, only useful against droids, or only useful in the early/mid game.

Crystals

Ankarres Sapphire: +2 Strength, +1 Dexterity, +2 Regeneration, and doubles the weapon's crit chance.

Barab Ore Ingot: +2-16 Fire damage. Bypasses many shields, and is good in terms of pure damage.

Kaiburr: +3 Wisdom, +3 Constitution, and +3 Regeneration. The Constitution and Dexterity help increase surviability substantially.

Upari: +1d8 Damage and +3 to hit. Simply a good upgrade in damage.

Quixoni +5 damage, +1 Force Point Regeneration. While this crystal is restricted to the Dark Side, if you place it with your Character Crystal, any alignment can use it!

Solari: +3 damage, +3 chance to hit, and an additional +1-8 against Dark Side enemies. Since it adds 4-11 damage against most late-game enemies, this crystal is extremely good for pure damage. While this crystal is restricted to the Light Side, if you place it with your Character Crystal, any alignment can use it!

Character Crystal
On Dantooine, in the Crystal Cave, you will find a crystal named after your character. This crystal can be ranked up 8 times by talking to Kreia with it removed from your Lightsaber: Do this as often as possible! Once the Crystal is maxed out, it is the most powerful in the game, by a longshot.

Light Side Character Crystal:
Strength: +5
Dexterity: +6
Wisdom: +7
Damage: +10 Light Side vs Dark Side enemies, +5 Light Side
Chance to Hit: +3
25% chance to slow the target for 6 seconds, DC22

Dark Side Character Crystal
Strength: +7
Dexterity: +5
Charisma: +6
Damage: +5 Dark Side
Chance to Hit: +3
+3-30 Critical Damage
Knockdown, DC22

Force powers tend not to be important in this build. The damage done by them is extremely low in comparison to the damage of simply using your melee weapons. However, some are still useful.

Force Deflection: Grants +3 Blaster Bolt Deflection, and also lets you deflect shots with any weapon and not just Lightsabers.

Burst of Speed: Grants +4 Defense and +2 attacks per turn. Also doubles movement speed, which is extremely useful in closing distance with enemies.

Dominate Mind: Allows for some force persuade rolls when talking to people. Helps make up for having no persuasion.

The rest of the powers are up to your choice.

Armor:
Zeison Sha Warrior Armor:
Gives 5 Defense, allows a +4 Dexterity bonus, and gives +1 Fortitude. Does not restrict Force Powers, and is upgradable. I reccomend putting on either Strengthening or Biorestorative underlays, and Energy Shielding as the Overlay.

Belts:
Adrenaline Stimulator:
Grants +4 to Fortitude, Will, and Reflex, in addition to +2 Dexterity. Very good for resisting effects.
Immortality Belt: -2 chance to hit, +1 constitution, and grants a 10/- resistance to all melee and energy attacks. This belt helps for tanking damage quite a bit at the cost of some chance to hit.

Gloves:
Dominator Gauntlets: Simply granting +5 strength, these will increase melee damage by +2-3.

Headgear:
Enhanced Shielding Visor: +3 Defense, resist 15% of Electric, Energy, and Ion damage. Helps with taking damage, or simply not getting hit.
Force Shield -6 Charisma and Wisdom, but grants +5 will, a 5/- resistance to Dark Side Damage, and +24 vs Force Powers. This grants practical immunity to force powers.

Implants:
Numbness Package: +2 Constitution, gives a 5/- resistance to all Melee damage. Very useful for tanking.
Physical Boost D-Package +3 Constitution, Dexterity, and Strength. Simply an upgrade to all the important stats.

Overall, a properly made Jedi guardian is extremely powerful throughout all stages of the game. While you can't use Computer Use or Persuade, it's not like you can Repair the final boss to death. I hope this guide helps you make a successful character in Star Wars: Knights Of The Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords!

• 12/30/16 Changed the Attributes to correctly list Strength as 16 and Constitution as 18, and added the alternative attribute scores.