So I was given the ok to make a Force Sensitive Exile character. I have the main rule book and from what I can gather after a few glances I need to actually have a starting career and then take on the specialization of Force Sensitive Exile. If I understand this correctly then I would have two specializations and a force rating of 1.

Is there anyway to increase force rating outside of the purchasable specialization "Force Rating"?

I looked through the other source books released and there really is nothing out there information wise that would be additional information outside of the main source book.

Yes, you purchase FS Exile with 20 xp at creation if you like and it will be in addition to any career spec you choose. You start with FR 1 and have access to one more upgrade in the talent tree. In AoR you could then buy Emergent and level up through that tree to obtain another upgrade for a total of FR 3. Force n Destiny beta should be out by August so might want to skip the Emergent route for now.

Looks like you need to buy your way down the talent tree.

Yes, you purchase FS Exile with 20 xp at creation if you like and it will be in addition to any career spec you choose. You start with FR 1 and have access to one more upgrade in the talent tree. In AoR you could then buy Emergent and level up through that tree to obtain another upgrade for a total of FR 3. Force n Destiny beta should be out by August so might want to skip the Emergent route for now.

Thanks I appreciate the feedback. Looks like it will be fun times chasing that Force Rating.

From a numbers standpoint, I think it makes more sense to spend that 20 buy-in XP on stuff to get you through your first mission or two, and buying buying in to FSExile post-chargen. Mostly because once you're in, it's likely you'll focus a lot of XP on FSEx Talents and Force Powers, passing up (at least temporarily) the bread-and-butter low hanging fruit of your original Career/Spec that is actually going to be how your carry your weight at the start of play.

Just my 2 creds.

So I was given the ok to make a Force Sensitive Exile character. I have the main rule book and from what I can gather after a few glances I need to actually have a starting career and then take on the specialization of Force Sensitive Exile. If I understand this correctly then I would have two specializations and a force rating of 1.

Is there anyway to increase force rating outside of the purchasable specialization "Force Rating"?

I looked through the other source books released and there really is nothing out there information wise that would be additional information outside of the main source book.

You'd be correct, in that you'd have to pick a career and a specialization attached to that career as would any other player character, and then spend 20 of your starting XP budget to buy into the Force Exile career.

Currently, the only way to get a Force Rating is to purchase the Force Exile or the Force Emergent (from the Age of Rebellion rulebook), both of which provide "Force Rating 1" in lieu of the bonus career skills that other specializations provide. Bear in mind that buying Exile and Emergent doesn't give you Force Rating 2, so the current cap on Force Rating is actually 3 (FR 1 from buying Exile or Emergent, +1 from the Force Rating talent at the bottom of each spec's talent tree).

It's been guessed that PCs in Force & Destiny will get a Force Rating of at least 1 when selecting certain careers and/or specializations, but we'll only know for certain once the Beta gets released.

If you're GM's willing to allow non-official material, take a look at my Ways of the Force fan supplement (you can find it on my blog; see my sig for the link). It's got a trio of additional universal Force specializations, including one for Jedi-in-training. Again, they'd be purchased the same as Exile, but do provide some alternate options as the Exile isn't to everyone's taste.

I agree that picking up the spec after your first game is maybe a better choice. Depending on how you do things, those 20 XP could go a long way elsewhere. More to the point, you can't do anything with just the spec; you need powers specifically to use the Force, and a handful a talents to passively use it. The huge sink of what could be 40 XP at character creation can really be better spent elsewhere, where as picking up just the spec is kind of a zero-returns point sink.

Not to poop on Donovan's parade, but I'd stick to Exile and Emergent for now. The F&D beta will be out in a relatively short time, which risks rendering a great deal of the Way of the Force fan supplement irrelevant out of date. It'd be a different story a year ago, but we're pretty close to release now. While I'd be interested in seeing an updated version once we can see the Force as a single big picture, avoiding it for the moment keeps things from getting messy and possibly ruining your character later. Besides, with two specs (plus your class spec), five powers to choose from and advance in, and a Force rating of 3, these things should provide you with more than enough to play with.

Gonna agree with some of the earlier posts about the best uses for starting experience, investing 20 into a universal specialization which provides you with a force rating but no additional skill options initially, means you are either laying aside enough experience to get force tree powers as well or investing experience into the force user talents.

As starting characteristics can only have experience applied to them during character creation you are far better off developing those initially. Each +1 to a characteristic afterwards typically will cost you 120 exp and upwards later. While things like skills/talents and additional specializations are easier to develop thru gameplay.

I would also not take for granted your actual starting career and spec. It's easy to take that choice lightly in lieu of focusing on the FSE spec, but it is a chance to define the character outside of "uses the Force." As far as the rules are concerned you are your base career first, and Force user second and will give you opportunities based on that (such as career Signature Abilities).

Take that choice as seriously as you take the Force user stuff and you will get more out of it.

I'd agree with everyone spending the xp up front to get FSE is probably not the wisest move mechanically. If you're looking for a more organic character creation and integrating the Force right from go I understand.

Something to keep in mind is Discipline figures into Force powers quite a bit. If you have AoR might take a look at Commander Tactician. You get 2 free ranks of Discipline, access to both initiative skills, as well as a rank of Perception, plus Brawl, Range(L), and Range(H) as career skills, and for icing on top some good combat talents, and some Presence talents. It synergizes very well mechanically with FSE.

I would also not take for granted your actual starting career and spec. It's easy to take that choice lightly in lieu of focusing on the FSE spec, but it is a chance to define the character outside of "uses the Force." As far as the rules are concerned you are your base career first, and Force user second and will give you opportunities based on that (such as career Signature Abilities).

Take that choice as seriously as you take the Force user stuff and you will get more out of it.

This right here, folks.

One of my players wanted to make a character that followed Luke Skywalker's path, so he made a Fringer/FS:Em, unfortunately he dove straight into the Force Sensitive: Emergent tree from the AoR beta and did not even touch the finger tree during character creation.

That didn't bother me but as he continued to accrue XP and advance his character he got distracted by all of the shiny force stuff and a fee weeks ago he admitted he was not having fun. He invested too much into force sensitivity but because of the setting (4 BBY), he couldn't really express the force sensitivity. He rebuilt the character with less emphasis on active force powers like move, and more on passive force powers like sense and foresee. We ended up changing his career to Smuggler/Scoundrel and he invested more in to his talents.

He is happier now.

As an Archeologist/FSE I admit into going heavily into the force. I'd say about 70%, but I put some points into Piloting (Space) and 3 skill points into Knowledge (Lore). Took 3 Archeologist talents also. As we are looking for artifacts and a vault of treasure, it gives me a value to our group outside of the force and have had a lot of fun. I'd recommend choosing something outside of the force that you can contribute to a team, and using the rest on the FSE stuff.

Oh, and I can reccomend the first conrol upgrade for Sense. It helped keep me alive while I raced for that Force upgrade talent. It only needs you to commit your Force die, as without two force dice your rolls for Force use are a little less than 50/50.

I would also not take for granted your actual starting career and spec. It's easy to take that choice lightly in lieu of focusing on the FSE spec, but it is a chance to define the character outside of "uses the Force." As far as the rules are concerned you are your base career first, and Force user second and will give you opportunities based on that (such as career Signature Abilities).

Take that choice as seriously as you take the Force user stuff and you will get more out of it.

This is very much true.

Your starting career and specialization are going to determine your career skills, to say nothing of the talents offered by the spec and their ability to synergize with how you see your character.

My Force-sensitive street rat is a Smuggler/Scoundrel, and while it might have been " more sensible" from a purely mechanical perspective to not spend any of his starting XP on a Force specialization or Force powers, it made more sense to spend the XP to gain those from the perspective of the character's backstory and the core concept of who this person was.

While he's not taken too many Scoundrel talents (only Quick Draw and Rapid Reactions so far), the choice of skills offered by Scoundrel (Charm and Cool especially, but Ranged - Light didn't hurt) were nice, as was Smuggler offering both Perception and Vigilance as career skills.

It doesn't hurt that FSE can pick up discipline as a class skill with the Insight talent.