I'm looking at a Warrior/Aggressor who picks up the Hired Gun/Enforcer spec and maxes out his ranks in Fearsome forcing anyone that engages with him to make a PPPPPP Discipline check vs. fear.

Is there any good way of upgrading that check a bit?

Also, does Fearsome trigger if you engage someone, or only if they engage you?

If my memory is correct, Fearsome triggers when characters are engaged. Who did or didn't move into engaged should be, rightly, irrelevant. A bear does not become less scary if you approach it or if it approaches you.

That raises a concern. If I played this character, would I be able to walk up to an NPC and foce the GM to flip a destiny point just to have a chance of beating that fear check?

That is a very touchy subject.

If a PC with 5 Fearsome walks up to a random NPC and instigates a Fear check, the GM has options. They certainly don't have to flip a Destiny point. Depending on the situation, it would certainly be applicable to add Boost die to the NPC's Discipline or Cool check. If the PC is trying to use Fearsome on a city official inside a secure government facility with plenty of security on call, adding a Boost die or 2 would not be out of the question.

Then, consider that the effects of Fear are not that brutal. Basic failure adds a Setback to each action the NPC takes during the encounter. If it's a simple merchant dealing with a notorious bounty hunter, that's not inappropriate. He should be nervous.

Threat can afflict the NPC with strain. This may or may not be relevant depending on the circumstances. He could suffer strain or be staggered. If it's just some random NPC, who cares?

Despair is the worst outcome, but, at 5 basic Difficulty, unless the PC spends a Destiny point, the NPC doesn't have to worry about rolling Challenge dice with his check. If the PC spends the Destiny point, doesn't the PC deserve the shot at making the NPC increase the difficulty of all their checks for that encounter? They just spent a Destiny point on a 1-in-12 chance (if my math is right). That doesn't seem too arduous.

In short, I really don't see this as a problem. The PC would have to spend a lot of experience points on just the 5 Fearsome talents not to mention multi-speccing into a career they don't have, then buying their way through the two trees to get this far. In just Enforcer alone that is a minimum of 155 XP if they go straight for Fearsome and nothing else. I can't imagine a PC would get that far in a short period of time.

If a PC wants to have Fearsome Rank 5, and they spend the XP over a long campaign, which is what would be required, to get it, I do not see this as a problem at all.

Calm down folks.

If I were the GM, and the Force-sensitive PC was constantly making NPCs do fear checks, I'd start handing out Conflict (more or less depending on the situation; i.e.,whether the NPC represents a threat or not).

Go ahead, be the scariest guy in the room. Maybe start dressing in black, and paint your face with scary red & black patterns, I'll give the NPCs a setback die to their fear checks. Sure, try it out on the toll booth operator, why not? Now, roll a d10 against 17 Conflict.

KJDavid, it would be 6 difficulty if you pickd up all the talents.

And of course the PC would be gaining conflict doing this if the situation didn't call for it.

Which doesn't really invalidate any of my points.