I'm considering playing a Hired Gun in our local campaign that is just starting and I am wondering everyone's opinions on how good are Hired Guns overall?

What is their combat effectiveness compared to other careers and which specializations seem ideal to make the most effective one possible?

You will find plenty of combat potential in the career. It is also one of the only two careers so far with a splat book published, so you have 6 specializations to choose from. Mercenary Soldier has a solid all around set of combat Skills and Talents. Of the 6 specs I would say BodyGuard is the least attractive in my mind.

Hired Gun Maurauders are absolute death on repulsorlift, if they are properly statted and equipped. The only thing more deadly than a properly equipped Maurauder is a properly equipped Heavy, and only because the Heavy can use something like a Light Repeating Blaster and get a high enough Agility and skill to make Auto-fire happen all the time and at high volumes.

The best a Maurauder can do is to swing a pair of suitably modified vibro-weapons with lots of Pierce, good Critical hit activation plus Vicious, and then pile on the talents to add more damage. But a properly equipped Heavy can do the same level of damage per hit, times three or five or seven or however many times he can get Auto-fire to happen.

Wookiees are pretty natural Maurauders, but you can also do Trandoshan, Aqualish, or Weequay. It all depends on what you want to focus on as your secondary ability/ies.

Yes, I play a Wookiee Maurauder.

The Mercenary Soldier is actually more deadly than just about anybody (Marauders included) once he has True Aim 2 and Deadly Accuracy. Granted, those are bottom of the tree talents, but they are quite powerful. With his Point Blank 2, he can keep up (probably outpace really) the damage output of almost any Marauder.

From my experience, I'd say hired guns are slightly better than the other combat specs in EoE, in killing power. (pilots and bounty hunters are still **** killy)

However hired guns tend to be tougher.

I'd suggest thinking about what you want to do outside combat, and in ship, when looking at which spec to take. I know I tended to get bored due to not having anything to do as a marauder.

I enjoy playing with my wookiee demolitionist. Similar to a Heavy with autofire, easily triggering blast can wipe out groups of bad guys with relative ease. I also function as the group's mechanic outside of combat which correlates with the skills in the demolition tree.

Which do you all find to be more combat effective as a spec overall? Heavy or Mercenary Soldier? You can dip into abilities from both, right?

Which do you all find to be more combat effective as a spec overall? Heavy or Mercenary Soldier? You can dip into abilities from both, right?

Sure, as long as you have paid for both specializations you can advance them however you see fit (as long as you follow the lines on the talent trees, of course).

I'd say the Heavy is mostly focused on shooting things at long range with the biggest possible guns - and they excel at precisely that. The Mercenary Soldier is a bit more of an all-round (ranged) fighter who can also buff himself and his companions some.

Which do you all find to be more combat effective as a spec overall? Heavy or Mercenary Soldier? You can dip into abilities from both, right?

The 'Overall' award would have to go to Merc imo. True Aim, Deadly Accuracy, Sniper Shot, Strongarm, Point Blank, all come together to impact all weapons. Couple that with the things you can do for a group combat oriented with Leadership checks, and it's pretty much the winner in my eyes.

While the Mercenary Soldier has the higher potential for destruction and mayhem, the Marauder has an entirely different play style.

In the end, it really boils down to what you want to do as a character: wade in and cause mayhem or blow things up.

If you like shooting from afar, giving orders, and relying on big weapons, go with a Mercenary Soldier.

If you like being up close and personal with a plethora of melee weapons, go with the Marauder.

As a note, the Heavy has a LOT of potential. One of my new players is statting one up and it's looking like a beast. It'll take hits and may not have the same damage potential, but trying to take one out won't be easy.

Any good talent builds out there for a Mercenary Soldier?

Any good talent builds out there for a Mercenary Soldier?

It's not an MMO. Create a character concept and buy Talents and Skills that match your concept. The best build is the one you make to flesh out your own character idea.

I understand...I'm just looking at a good path through the spec tree to get all the talents I want without wasting a lot of points in the process.

So far my characteristics look like Brawn 3, Agility 4, everything else 2. Do you think this is wise?

Any good talent builds out there for a Mercenary Soldier?

It's not an MMO. Create a character concept and buy Talents and Skills that match your concept. The best build is the one you make to flesh out your own character idea.

The thing is there isn't a lot of what I would call bad in the tree. If you don't want to pursue the Leadership buffs you are probably fine with your attributes. The mechanically best avenue is probably straight down the center left column and then sweep the whole bottom row of 25 xp Talents. The whole tree though is pretty solid.

I suggest four stats at 3, if you can take the extra obligation for exp.

So....to be an optimal death dealer but not be too shallow overall would you suggest to take Brawn 3, Agility 4, everything else at 2 like I have now OR:

Brawn: 3, Agility: 3, one other attribute at 3 and leftovers at 2?

So....to be an optimal death dealer but not be too shallow overall would you suggest to take Brawn 3, Agility 4, everything else at 2 like I have now OR:

Brawn: 3, Agility: 3, one other attribute at 3 and leftovers at 2?

Either work just fine. My group usually opted to go with a 4/3/2/2/2/2 spread in the first game, but in the second game the 3/3/3/2/2/2 spread is more favored. Those Characteristic scores are not necessarily assigned in the order shown.

So....to be an optimal death dealer but not be too shallow overall would you suggest to take Brawn 3, Agility 4, everything else at 2 like I have now OR:

Brawn: 3, Agility: 3, one other attribute at 3 and leftovers at 2?

I'd go 4 Agility and probably 3 in Presence or Cunning. The Agility makes you rock solid with Ranged weapons. Presence would give you the ability to take advantage of your Leadership Talents and that Skill along with Cool for most initiative rolls, or Cunning that would give you a solid Perception roll, which we seem to do a lot of in our game.

My take on the "best" combat-wombat to start.

Take 10 obligation for extra exp.

Be a klatooinian.

Buy Brawn 4 and Agility 4

Pick Mercenary Soldier (If AoR is available pick gunner or sharpshooter)

Use your racial skill to start with ranged heavy 2. Also take melee 1 (pick up anything as a weapon), and ranged light 1 (grenades), use your any skill on either stealth or piloting space

Start with a catch jacket, two clubs, and a stun grenade or heavy clothing and heavy blaster pistol (stun only) or the SKZ sporting blaster (stun only). Use these to acquire better gear. Mono edged melee weapons and Auto fire blasters been the aim.

Progression get as much "point blank shot" as possible then head to dedication and true aim

Do be aware that the Klatooinian build suggested in the post above has Willpower 1 (important for Discipkine and Vigilance, possibly Coercion) and will have a low starting Strain Threshold too.

I sense much powergaming in this thread.

Serious response:

I personally don't like the concept of creating a char that can deal to most damage or take the most punishment inside a rule-system. There is not much of charakter concept in this most of the time.

Get your backstory first and then you should have a decent idea if even your wookie can use one extra point in maybe presence or cunning to support your character concept.

Unless you play some gladiator slave or ultra badass spec-ops operative I find charakter concepts that mainly focus on the combat aspects to be shallow. Most of the times the above mentioned concepts are very shallow even when some story fluff is added to the charakter.

Just let go of the mindset that you need to master your class or maxout your skills, I think it doesn't fit to most characters encoutered in starwars.

Unless you play some gladiator slave or ultra badass spec-ops operative I find charakter concepts that mainly focus on the combat aspects to be shallow. Most of the times the above mentioned concepts are very shallow even when some story fluff is added to the charakter.

I assume unless is a typo, as those are probably "THE" most boring, clichéd, combat characters imaginable.

The question was asked, its was discussed, and an answer proposed.

If you don't like it, get off your high horse and start a "fluff" and "charakter" thread, or contribute something other than "combat bad" poo-pooing.

Do be aware that the Klatooinian build suggested in the post above has Willpower 1 (important for Discipkine and Vigilance, possibly Coercion) and will have a low starting Strain Threshold too.

11 strain isn't to bad, but yeah willpower 1, is the trade for 2 4s

I sense much powergaming in this thread.

Serious response:

I personally don't like the concept of creating a char that can deal to most damage or take the most punishment inside a rule-system. There is not much of charakter concept in this most of the time.

Get your backstory first and then you should have a decent idea if even your wookie can use one extra point in maybe presence or cunning to support your character concept.

Unless you play some gladiator slave or ultra badass spec-ops operative I find charakter concepts that mainly focus on the combat aspects to be shallow. Most of the times the above mentioned concepts are very shallow even when some story fluff is added to the charakter.

Just let go of the mindset that you need to master your class or maxout your skills, I think it doesn't fit to most characters encoutered in starwars.

I find it interesting that you use both charakter (multiple times) and character in the same post. Made me look up the k spelling to see if it was some videogame slang.

If you don't like it, get off your high horse and start a "fluff" and "charakter" thread, or contribute something other than "combat bad" poo-pooing.

hey, dude just calm down a bit.

As I stated the mentioned concepts are indeed the most cliché and boring characters for combat focused classes.

But those are the ones players usually come up with, even if they try to cover itwith a shallow story.

I'ma lso not aguing to not go for combat-heavy characters. I'm just not a fan of combat characters that are not played like combat characters. It is just not very often that a player manages to play his presence 1, brawn 5 punching machine like it is meant to be. And even better when they come up with backstories that portrait those characters as still kind of charming.

My point is: If you have an interesting character concept it will probably justify that you not max out your talent-tree & stats to deal maximum damage. You will nonetheless be the hard-hitter of the party, but will also give other players room in engagements to show theier combat skills.

A absolute combat optimzed character can, if played in a party that is not that optimized for engagements, take away much fun for other characters in engagements.

If you don't like it, get off your high horse and start a "fluff" and "charakter" thread, or contribute something other than "combat bad" poo-pooing.

hey, dude just calm down a bit.

Yeah that got ugly quick! When discussing differing preferences, escalation can be expected. I recommend a less confrontational approach.

As I stated the concepts are indeed the most cliché and boring characters for combat focused classes.

But those are the ones players usually come up with, even if they try to cover itwith a shallow story.

One man's cliché is another man's awesome idea. Especially when the first man is a grognard and the other is a newbie. As a GM, one should of course encourage people towards interesting character concepts, but in RPGs character development trumps background . Get a short history together, work out some details for motivations and obligations, and start roleplaying. And for pity's sake, one shouldn't roll one's eyes at a character one thinks is boring. Just let other players get along with their stuff, and roll with it.

I'ma lso not aguing to not go for combat-heavy characters. I'm just not a fan of combat characters that are not played like combat characters. It is just not very often that a player manages to play his presence 1, brawn 5 punching machine like it is meant to be. And even better when they come up with backstories that portrait those characters as still kind of charming.

This kind of dissonance is something that a GM should come down on. "I'm sorry, but if you want your Wookiee to be a total ladies'-being, you're gonna have to increase your Presence, or wait until your Charm skill is higher. Otherwise he's going to think he's in good with the ladies when, in reality, he is not."

My point is: If you have an interesting character concept it will probably justify that you not max out your talent-tree & stats to deal maximum damage. You will nonetheless be the hard-hitter of the party, but will also give other players room in engagements to show theier combat skills.

A absolute combat optimzed character can, if played in a party that is not that optimized for engagements, take away much fun for other characters in engagements.

The last statement is only true if the encounters are so poorly crafted and imagined that they can only be overcome by "who deals the most damage with a personal weapon."

If a combat-optimized character is having fun and no one else is, it is usually no one's fault but the GM. Unless of course you have a table full of people that hate RPGs (but then, that's a different problem altogether).

Let players play the kind of character they want! And make encounters that are fun for them! Surely that's not a novel concept?

My suggestion for those designing encounters is to print this out http://www.d20radio.com/content/The%20List.pdf and stick it on your notebook/computer monitor/wall/wherever you are when you design encounters. Give the scholars and slicers something to do while your shooters and sluggers are mixing it up ol'-fashioned-style.