Just curious as to where people put there beginning XP during character creation? Do you like to up your base stats? Or do you like to put more points into Skills and Talents?

I come from the up your base stats camp.

Place as much into characteristics as possible. I think that is what most people have decided to do math wise.

Background, in my opinion, should trump the math.

I'm bad about actually doing this, but improving your characteristics is the most beneficial and I strongly get the impression that's what Fantasy Flight intends for players to be doing. Most on characteristics, some on talents, and a few on essential skills you couldn't pick up for free with your career.

Characteristics. It far and away makes the most sense since Talents can be easily bought after chargen but Characteristics cannot.

I rarely buy out-of-Career talents if I can help it (not cost-effective, I'd rather save and enter a Spec that has Talents I want that also gives in-Career skills I want). So I round out my XP with the Talents I think will help me do my job best.

As an aside, story and math are not ever in direct competition. Wanna play a pilot, it makes sense to have high Agility. Stats and story mutually reinforce each others' plausibility.

The tendency (correctly so) to earmark the lion's share of stating XP to stats means that most starting PCs are very monochromatic. I say this because there is often so little left for talents and skill ranks, everyone is very similar to each other (short of an extra die here and there for higher raw ability or free starting skill rank). Its the lucky PC build that can afford a talent or two straight away. Let alone that and a bonus skill rank.

If I ever start another new campaign, I think I may try "leveling up" everyone out of the gate. Then just taper/reduce session based XP awards slightly for a while on the back end to compensate. So everyone will have the ability to better flesh out their ideas from the get go.

I'd probably have everyone build a standard PC, then give an extra 100 XP to advance their build. Once play starts, instead of an average session resulting in like 15-25 XP, I'll drop it to something like 5-15 XP or whatever. At least for maybe the first Act/Chapter. Then again, maybe I won't even need to bother doing that...

Just curious as to where people put there beginning XP during character creation? Do you like to up your base stats? Or do you like to put more points into Skills and Talents?

I come from the up your base stats camp.

I'm from the "using the goram search bar" camp.

Or the

"Aren't there already a couple threads about almost exactly this topic on the front page?" camp.

Or the

"Doesn't the CRB itself suggest spending XP on Characteristics first?" camp.

Just sayin'

Characteristics at character generation as this is the best (indeed almost only) time they can be increased. A few left overs for low level Talents from the first Spec, or to buy a couple of ranks in key skills.

Yes, this does tend to make fresh characters look pretty similar, but that changes quickly when players begin earning and spending EXP.

Characteristics the majority, maybe all of it. Really just depends on the spec, race, etc. If there is 5-15 xp left, which is possible, maybe grab more career skills if they're good, or a 1st row talent or 3.

I used 80% on stats. A 110 point human with 3 stat upgrades to 3s. You can go for a 4, but from a cost point of view you're better off upgrading a 3 to a 4 with dedicated talent. It left me with 20 points for talents and skills, as I would have needed to take an additional 10 point obligation to get a 4th stat at 3. I used the last 20 for a 2 in Pilot(Space) and a 2 in Lore keeping with my archeologist theme. It was after that I focused on the Force Sensitive Exile and the Force. I leaned toward cost effectiveness with a dash of characterization. Ultimately it's about enjoying your character, so it pays to be smart, but points aren't everything.

I rarely buy out-of-Career talents if I can help it (not cost-effective, I'd rather save and enter a Spec that has Talents I want that also gives in-Career skills I want).

Agreed. If your second specialization is out-of-career, it pays for itself with the first 6 skill ranks in the skills it brings.

Background, in my opinion, should trump the math.

You know, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who is more "Character over Mechanics" than I, but even I have a hard time advocating not dumping as much as you can into your attributes while you can. With smart construction, you should be able to have an assortment of skills to match your background - and the stats will come quick enough once the points start flowing in.

So yeah, in this one instance mechanics > concept any day of the week.

I don't think I'd ever feel like I'd min-maxed or chosen mech over RP by buying up stats while I could. (Except for Droids) I don't think you can really powergame your initial build in this system - which is nice.

Well, I've not read about anybody on this forum who's character had a starting stat above 4, at any rate.

None of the talents are so distinctive that I ever find myself thinking, "There's no way I can build this character and justify not buying X right out of the gate."

Well, maybe Force Sensitivity. It being something you are or you aren't, it'd feel weird not buying it early (not a judgement on others, just a personal quirk). If I didn't get it during creation, FS Exile/Emergent would be where my first 20 in-game XP would go.

I rarely buy out-of-Career talents if I can help it (not cost-effective, I'd rather save and enter a Spec that has Talents I want that also gives in-Career skills I want).

Agreed. If your second specialization is out-of-career, it pays for itself with the first 6 skill ranks in the skills it brings.

Well, the discount is nice, but you still have to pay for them.

Due to the in-Spec discount, buying those 6 spec skills to Rank 1 would be 30 instead of 60. You save 30 XP - the cost to buy into that first new out-of-Career Spec in the first place.

I rarely buy out-of-Career talents if I can help it (not cost-effective, I'd rather save and enter a Spec that has Talents I want that also gives in-Career skills I want).

Agreed. If your second specialization is out-of-career, it pays for itself with the first 6 skill ranks in the skills it brings.

Well, the discount is nice, but you still have to pay for them.

Well, presumably you'd want them and would be buying them anyway, since that's a major reason (IMHO) to take a specialization. I find the Talent trees a less compelling reason.

Well, maybe Force Sensitivity. It being something you are or you aren't, it'd feel weird not buying it early (not a judgement on others, just a personal quirk). If I didn't get it during creation, FS Exile/Emergent would be where my first 20 in-game XP would go.

That's how I plan to approach it. I don't think characteristics should suffer because you want that specialization.

I've only created the one character so far but they are a human with three stats of 3 a couple of talents and skills after a few sessions at 2 pips. Right now he is the best shot, best pilot and I've chosen skills to compliment his thief skills and in time I want to get dedication to raise one of his stats further. So I wouldn't say its is essential you dump all your points in stats.

At first I was frustrated by the system. But after playing a few games I think it is pretty neat how it all events out. It just is unfortunate that the only way to raise ones characteristics is by going into a specialization and all the way down a tree. I come from DnD and they handled Characteristic progression differently is all. I just have to get used to it.

I've only created the one character so far but they are a human with three stats of 3 a couple of talents and skills after a few sessions at 2 pips. Right now he is the best shot, best pilot and I've chosen skills to compliment his thief skills and in time I want to get dedication to raise one of his stats further. So I wouldn't say its is essential you dump all your points in stats.

You invested 90/110 XP (80% of budget) in Characteristics (turning 3 stats at 2 into 3 stats at 3) and couldn't put any more in without either (A) turning one of those 3s back into a 2 and then buying a different 3 to a 4; or (B) taking 10 Obligation for +10 XP and buying another 2 to 3.

I'd say you did dump a good amount into Characteristics even if you didn't put 100% there, as you invested pretty much all you could into Characteristics. Incidentally, it's hard to spend 100% on Characteristics for most races - unless you do one of the things I listed above, you'll always have leftovers that can't buy another full Characteristic point and need to invest them elsewhere.

I rarely buy out-of-Career talents if I can help it (not cost-effective, I'd rather save and enter a Spec that has Talents I want that also gives in-Career skills I want). So I round out my XP with the Talents I think will help me do my job best.

I was under the impression that you can't buy talents out-of-career (or spec, since talents aren't by career). Only skills. To buy talents, you need access to the specialization.

I rarely buy out-of-Career talents if I can help it (not cost-effective, I'd rather save and enter a Spec that has Talents I want that also gives in-Career skills I want). So I round out my XP with the Talents I think will help me do my job best.

I was under the impression that you can't buy talents out-of-career (or spec, since talents aren't by career). Only skills. To buy talents, you need access to the specialization.

I meant Skills, my bad.

I rarely buy out-of-Career talents if I can help it (not cost-effective, I'd rather save and enter a Spec that has Talents I want that also gives in-Career skills I want). So I round out my XP with the Talents I think will help me do my job best.

I was under the impression that you can't buy talents out-of-career (or spec, since talents aren't by career). Only skills. To buy talents, you need access to the specialization.

I meant Skills, my bad.

No worries. I thought that was what you meant, but then I saw everyone quoting it and started feeling like I was taking crazy pills.

I started the much contested and often disregarded Explorer Scout. I picked human so I could get light ranged as a skill rank for free before having to pay higher points for it. I think the human's starting bonus of 2 non career skills and the extra XP more than make up for the average characteristics. The hard part was deciding if I really focus on pumping one stat up or trying to bring characteristics into the 3 range.

Pretty much all into Characteristics as possible, and then what ever is left into skills. Use XP gained during gameplay to get talents and increase skill ranks

I'll usually increase 2 characteristics, then look at the reat in skills and a talent or two. Talents are a big focus because I want the character to, out of the gate, be able to do something that no one else can do. I normally play pretty skill heavy, but I've had to dial that back here since there are huge considerations for having lower characteristics.