- Proposal
- Smuggler and Commando abilities should be changed to be usable with melee weapons (see below for details).
- Justification
- This change can only increase build diversity by making ranged/melee builds more viable and also potentially allowing melee focused templates to dip into either Smuggler or Commando.
- Motivation
- Many players see Smuggler and Commando's Brawler Unarmed pre-requisite as a hindrance or a limitation, and this is one way of solving it that doesn't involve change pre-reqs. It is also nonsensical for the two classes to have a significant amount of Melee/Unarmed skill mods in their trees but being unable to take advantage of that (Smuggler in fact has higher base Unarmed mods compared to Pistol mods).
Smuggler
All abilities should be usable with melee. All of them would still make thematic sense when used with a melee weapon and some of them even make more sense. Examples: Concussion Shot = bonking the target on the head, Restraining Shot = breaking their knees.
Commando
This one is a bit trickier since a lot of Commando's identity revolves around heavy weapons. However, I think a good compromise would be to allow It Burns and Burn it Down to be usable with melee. This would give Commandos the option of using a knuckler weapon to stack DoTs even faster than a flamethrower, at the cost of range.
All abilities should be usable with melee. All of them would still make thematic sense when used with a melee weapon and some of them even make more sense. Examples: Concussion Shot = bonking the target on the head, Restraining Shot = breaking their knees.
Commando
This one is a bit trickier since a lot of Commando's identity revolves around heavy weapons. However, I think a good compromise would be to allow It Burns and Burn it Down to be usable with melee. This would give Commandos the option of using a knuckler weapon to stack DoTs even faster than a flamethrower, at the cost of range.
