Jedi Academy Preview – Vodo-Siosk Baas
Talk to the...uh...tentacle.
Being a Jedi Master seems like a pretty thankless job. For one thing, the retirement benefits suck (“So, when I die, I just get to keep doing this same job forever, except Hayden Christensen might randomly show up?”). Plus, it’s basically inevitable that at some point one of your students is going to turn evil and murder you. Take Vodo-Siosk Baas, for example. He trained the Jedi Exar Kun back in the Old Republic days. How do you think that worked out?
Master Vodo is widely considered one of the greatest Jedi Masters of all time. He lived thousands of years before the events depicted in the Star Wars movies, although a holographic version of himself shows up to share his ancient Jedi wisdom with Luke Skywalker. He trained many Jedi, some of them quite notable in their own right. Including Exar Kun, who apparenly had fear, which of course lead to anger. Anger in turn lead to hate, and that lead to Master Vodo suffering a gruesome death at the hands of his former pupil. C’est la vie.
Now, Vodo-Siosk Baas lives again in the Jedi Academy expansion for the Star Wars Miniatures game. He’s not a bad melee fighter even without his Force powers, with respectable attack and damage values, the ability to attack twice each turn, and Parry, which will nullify half of the melee attacks that manage to hit him.
Vodo essentially has one real Force power: Force Alter, which lets him shift probabilities and make opponents reroll crucial attacks. Master of the Force allows him to do this twice each turn, and with five Force points to spend, he could make for a very frustrating opponent.
I like the way the Force Spirit power reflects Vodo’s ability to inspire other Jedi even after his death. Plus, it puts him into his proper role as a Jedi mentor – if you use Vodo with no other Force users in your squad, his Force Spirit ability is utterly useless.This shouldn’t be a problem, since Jedi Academy features 25 new Force using characters.
Bottom line: Vodo can charge into the thick of battle, where Parry and Force Alter will greatly increase his survivability. When he finally falls, he can supercharge one of your other Jedi. This is a figure that could be the core of a well-designed Jedi squad.
Jedi Academy hits stores June 30th, and it goes quite well with the Jedi Academy Training Manual for the Star Wars RPG, which came out a few weeks ago.
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May 28th, 2009 2:39 PM
That’s one mini that would definitely fit into a fantasy campaign
May 28th, 2009 3:08 PM
Illithid sage?
May 28th, 2009 3:10 PM
You guys are making my mouth drool. Too bad it is a rare: that will go for too much scratch on Paizo’s site, or ebay, or whatever. Fudge. I wish WotC was at Book Expo this weekend– I’d hit them up for a…a review mini.
That is a fine, fine sculpt.
May 28th, 2009 3:25 PM
Yeah, they put a really nice paintjob on his cloak, nice shading there.
May 28th, 2009 3:30 PM
Does Corran Horn have a mini? He’s just about the only EU character I care about. although, Vodo is awesome.
May 28th, 2009 3:44 PM
These aren’t tentacles, they’re gentacles!
May 28th, 2009 3:59 PM
Gentales, the kinder, gentler tentacle.
May 28th, 2009 8:46 PM
Ia! Ia! Vodo-Siosk Baas fhtagn!
May 28th, 2009 10:26 PM
Hahaha, that kills me every time.
May 29th, 2009 6:05 PM
[...] course, you can see the full story over at Robot Viking, but here’s a taste of what Ed Grabianowski has to say: Master Vodo is widely considered one [...]