Hello All. I got invited to a game and I'm spit balling an idea to play as the title implies. I have a total of 200 exp to use (no obligations) and need help building an Imperial Pilot Academy washout. Outside of the cockpit, he's good in a fist fight and a smooth talker with the ladies (I said this in Billy Dee tone of voice). As far as force use? Nothing flashy, more to make a good pilot even better and not take so much a beating when he's making time with the wrong girl in the wrong bar. Any advice? Thanks!

Sounds like the Enhance power in Age of rebellion is your best bet. Your career is probably Ace and for the spec I'd go pilot from AoR. Otherwise spend a couple of ranks in brawl and charm plus your typical piloting skills.

It's going to cost a minimum of 45 points for the Force tree and into Enhance to get a single Force die that can be added to Piloting. That's if you just grab Pilot as a Career and single spec. If you want Charm as a career skill you'd need Scoundrel for that, and if you want access to Piloting talents that would be another spec which eats into your 200 xp. I'm not so sure you want to spend the xp on the Force power right off, 1 Force die costs what it does and it gets you a 50% chance to get nothing for your points every time you roll it.

Why was he a washout? Was his skills not up to snuff or did he not appreciate the way empire does things?

If it's the former, then I wouldn't bother with Ace Pilot or Smuggler pilot, for the pilot talents. I would check out scoundrel, you get the piloting skill from the smuggler career, and the charm from the scoundrel specialization. This will also allow you to double dip.

As for as the force sensitivity, I second the Enhancement force power coupled with Force Sensitive: Exile. If you do go force sensitive, 200 XP might not be enough to dip into a third tree such as a charismatic specialization if you chose the pilot as your starting talent tree, or vice versa. So I would definitely think about which part of the your character do you want to emphasize the most (Pilot, Smooth talker, or Force Sensitive), and which part you want to emphasize the least. This will tell you where you want to start and where most of your XP will go.

a smooth talker with the ladies (I said this in Billy Dee tone of voice). As far as force use? Nothing flashy, more to make a good pilot even better and not take so much a beating when he's making time with the wrong girl in the wrong bar

Naw naw. this guy wants to smooth talk with the ladies. Force Power Influence is what you want.

On dark side pips, you could make her feel:

Financial insecurity

Loneliness

Lower self esteem

Submissive

On light side pips, you could make her feel:

Lustful

Friendly

Or just generally havin' a good feelin about this.

Once you've spent all those points in influence, you'll have plenty to spare left over for piloting.

I'd pick Sense over Enhance for the defensive stuff. And dip in Influence, you can get the best parts with pretty minimal investment. But with FR 1 don't expect that to be great or even reliable.

Scoundrel and Pilot will get you the skills you want; probably focus on the former's talents over the latter since Pilot's talents aren't really super useful in all situations. Scoundrel is also good for social skills like Charm. Most important thing from Pilot is using Skilled Jockey to get rid of any Setbacks from Handling on your primary craft.

I'm a fan of Fringer for pilot types as it provides plenty of versatility outside of the cockpit along with some fairly good Astrogation and pilot stuff.

I'll second the Force Power: Sense purchase. For one it's in the Edge of Empire Book. You won't have to use Age of Rebellion which is still in Beta. There is no rule that says you can't use the defense and offense upgrades in a vehicle.

For another it doesn't want you to have two force points right away. You'll have to crawl down the Enhance tree to see any real benefit. The biggest benefit from Enhance (for this concept) is the +1 Agility and that's at the bottom of a branch. You'll start reaping Sense rewards for a mere 20XP (plus the cost of Force Sensitive Exile).

With only 200 xp, you won't be getting all the way to 2 force points. Unless sucking at everything else sounds like a good plan?

Enhance is a good power and I'd recommend getting it later. The brawl enhancing aspects (pun intended) will be useful to you as well as the agility side of the tree. The leap portion will also help you get into punching range. That part of the tree is best saved for when you have the force points to reliably trigger it, however.

A question I think needs to be asked: Does the character KNOW he's Force Sensitive?

That right there is going to do a lot toward defining his careers and abilities. If he doesn't know, then you might be able to get away with Enhance to an extent, but the more wild powers like sense and mind trick are probably off limits.

My opinion, don't overthink it. Smuggler:Pilot, with FS Exile. Just man up and spend the XP to buy a couple ranks in Charm, and focus your Exile talents to the left side of the tree, though grab Uncanny Reactions too right off, this will be your "good in a fist fight" angle.

A question I think needs to be asked: Does the character KNOW he's Force Sensitive?

That right there is going to do a lot toward defining his careers and abilities. If he doesn't know, then you might be able to get away with Enhance to an extent, but the more wild powers like sense and mind trick are probably off limits.

My opinion, don't overthink it. Smuggler:Pilot, with FS Exile. Just man up and spend the XP to buy a couple ranks in Charm, and focus your Exile talents to the left side of the tree, though grab Uncanny Reactions too right off, this will be your "good in a fist fight" angle.

I'd add to this advice that a Human can just snag a free rank of Charm and Brawl at creation. That should round the character out.

I think Sense is the better power to take initially. You'll get the defensive upgrades, which will help with both Brawling and Piloting. I would wait to grab Enhance for a while.

Thanks everyone for the responses. In reply to some; No. He doesn't know he's force sensitive. He's just had a certain feel or knack for flying and knows how far he can push things. Think Anakin prior to being told he's force sensitive.

He washed out of the academy for taking reckless chances (to others anyway) and possibly cheating though nothing was ever proven.

I think Scoundrel/Pilot is the way to go. What should I be looking at as for characteristics and skills?

I'm really not trying to sound like a jerk here, honest. But, are you looking for someone to build a character for you? Are you looking for optomization hackery and cheeze? I mean, your posts seem to imply you have a decent enough grasp of setting and rules. Enough so, at least, that I get the impression you can figure out what to do and where to spend your points.

That said, my advise is, build the character that you want to play. More importantly, put points in the things that make sense for your background and concept. Whatever you decide that to be. With the small window of insight you've provided thus far, its a bit tough asking others to do it for you. YOu are the one who's going to be playing the character.

Sure, you are saying Scoundrel/Pilot/Force Sensitive. OK. Take a decent Agility and Willpower I guess. Take the force spec of your choice (Exile or Emergent), whichever you like better. Take some core skills to epitomize good pilot. Take the Enhance power and run down the left side to get the piloting boosts. Other than those basic framework ideas, I can't imagine knowing what all bits and pieces you want to tack on to personalize him and make him your own.

Important consideration: most games of Edge don't primarily occur with you in vehicles on aboard ship. That's not to say these scenes aren't important My suggestion is doing Scoundrel, not Pilot, for the main reason that the Talent tree is stronger and more broadly applicable.

Agility, Cunning, and Presence at 3. If you want 10 XP for more obligation I might also boost Willpower. Or: Agility 4, Presence 3.

For a pilot: Agi 4 will get you what you need without skills honestly. But a rank of Space and Planetary isn't a bad idea. If you have a brainiac person you can just let them handle Astrogation.

For a face: Charm, Deception. If you're human, grab a rank of Cool and Ranged Light.

For a Force-User: Sense + the first left-hand Control upgrade, working down that tree eventually, BUT I think the better focus is on your "native" Talent tree at that XP level.

Thanks everyone for the responses. In reply to some; No. He doesn't know he's force sensitive. He's just had a certain feel or knack for flying and knows how far he can push things. Think Anakin prior to being told he's force sensitive.

He washed out of the academy for taking reckless chances (to others anyway) and possibly cheating though nothing was ever proven.

I think Scoundrel/Pilot is the way to go. What should I be looking at as for characteristics and skills?

Well to be an awesome pilot you need two things:

1)Good Skills in Piloting, focus on Agility at character creation, then bump up the skill as you go, don't worry about maxing it out until after you've run the character a bit and are sure you actually need to. (Gunnery, Mechanics, Computers, and Astrogation aren't required, but sure do help, see point 2.)

2) Commit the vehicle combat rules to memory. Especially the various standard maneuvers and actions. Good combat flying in EotE is just as much about knowing what action to take when as it is rolling successes. This is also why you don't need to blow your XP load on Piloting ranks right off, it's a good bet you'll find that XP is better spent on other related skills and talents.

For the rest of your concept,. a rank or two in Charm and Brawl and you're essentially done. Toss some XP at Force Exile if you like, but since the character doesn't know he's force sensitive there's no hurry on that.

It did sound like that didn't it? No, I'm asking for someone to build. I'm just trying to get some decent insight and try to avoid any traps. I like to to strike a balance between concept and optimization. Useful and not one-sided. I do appreciate the advice, especially now knowing where are some possible places to take the character further down the road.

Well, sans the force parts, I've been playing my human Smuggler Scoundrel/Pilot/Thief for a while now (approaching the 500xp earned mark any day now). I find myself immensely useful in all manner of situations: combat, social interaction, I'm the group's primary pilot (by a huge margin), stealthy stuff, investigation... Other than that stupid bout of mountain climbing I was forced to endure a few sessions back, there's been little I couldn't handle confidently.

As Kshatriya suggests, I went 3's in Agility, Cunning and Presence. Since then I've bumped Agility and Cunning to 4. Presence is next (very soon). Skill ranks wherever you can afford them, in multiples even (if possible) for the key stuff, is also your goal. Pepper with cool piloting talents is a must as well. Anyone can have a good piloting check dice pool. But the beauty of the pilot spec is the unique talents that let you do things no one else can. Got those. You won't regret it (unless your GM regularly avoids giving you guys a chance for ship encounters, I suppose, but then building a pilot was a bad choice anyway...).