Me and my friends are about to start playing the Star Wars RPG. I was looking at playing a Droid, and noticed that they seem to start at a lower point than other classes. They have a pretty cool concept, being completely customizable to what you want to do, but it feels like they made the cost of that so high. Just from a quick look, it looks like most other races start the game with about 130 EXP worth of stats (120 for Humans, but have an extra 10 to do what they want with), then they get their begining 100 EXP to start with.

Droids on the otherhand get only the 175 EXP to work with, total. When making a Droid, it feels like I'm missing out on so much by NOT rolling something like a Human slicer instead. Their only strength seems to be some versatility and customization (I get to pick extra class skills instead of getting specific ones depending on race)I also get that Droids also get the advantage of being robotic, and therefore do not require sleep, oxygen, ect. But unless our DM starts throwing people out of airlocks on a consistent basis, it feels kind of unneeded.

So here's my question: Am I missing something glaringly obvious about Droids that make them better than I think they are?

Droids get bonus skills worth the equivalent of 15-30 EXP instead of the usual 5-10, and all the conveniences associated with being inorganic. The important thing about droids, though, is that they are specialists. They are designed to excel in their designated task, but in exchange they lack the broad adaptability of their organic counterparts.

They get a bonus soak as well. If you pump all your points into brawn and talents you can start with soak 9 and it will be pretty boring when you have to do anything in game besides punch people.

You won't be able to be a jack of all trades the way some other races can be, so try to pick 2 different things you want to be good at when building your droid. Maybe cunning skills along with melee power, or ranged ability along with computer slicing.

If you pick a Career and Specialization with overlapping skills, you'll be able to start with several skills at rank 2 without sacrificing too much bonus versatility on account of the extra free skill ranks droids start with.

The droid gets a whole one more skill rank than the human, who gets, what, 55 more XP to compensate? The human can specialize just as deeply, but will also be reasonably capable at many more things.

And I don't consider the immunities to mean much. Star Wars spacesuits are really cheap and comfortable enough to be casual wear (cf. the cantina scene). And for a number of situations that I would normally call for a spacesuit, apparently all you need is a breath mask, without any eye protection. Not needing sleep is almost pure fluff, it's not like you have a day job and the droid can therefore work three, gain piles of credits, and buy the best gear for everyone. When everyone else stops to sleep...you also stop. You're not vulnerable to poison or disease, but OTOH everyone else is invulnerable to ion weapons. And let's be honest, how often does poison or disease show up compared to e.g. blaster fire, melee weapons, and alien claws?

The things you might want a hyper specialized droid for don't seem to be good PC material. You can just buy a medical droid or hovering spy droid and play a well-rounded character instead. Being able to usefully participate all the time is way more fun for everyone than twiddling your thumbs most of the time waiting for the occasional scene where you can make the other PCs look weak.

Stats aren't as important as people make them seem if you aren't after a majority of the skills those stats effect. Adding Ability dice is better than upgrading an Ability die to Proficiency, so lower stats with higher skill ranks can actually be effective. Not to mention you can spend the xp on talents, which for certain Specs can be really handy 175 xp could take you all the way to Dedication in one tree, and halfway to three-quarters there in another. At chargen, that's pretty good.

It might require you to be mediocre for the first session if you want to pump skills (I don't personally understand the skill cap at character creation. It limits you for a single session at most, if you really want to pump skills, which seems pointless), but after that first session, you can be pretty good at what you want to do.

They are also one of the few races that can get to 5 in a stat w/o having to take an obligation. If you care about that stuff...and you can still have some pts for some skills

The droid gets a whole one more skill rank than the human, who gets, what, 55 more XP to compensate? The human can specialize just as deeply, but will also be reasonably capable at many more things.

And I don't consider the immunities to mean much. Star Wars spacesuits are really cheap and comfortable enough to be casual wear (cf. the cantina scene). And for a number of situations that I would normally call for a spacesuit, apparently all you need is a breath mask, without any eye protection. Not needing sleep is almost pure fluff, it's not like you have a day job and the droid can therefore work three, gain piles of credits, and buy the best gear for everyone. When everyone else stops to sleep...you also stop. You're not vulnerable to poison or disease, but OTOH everyone else is invulnerable to ion weapons. And let's be honest, how often does poison or disease show up compared to e.g. blaster fire, melee weapons, and alien claws?

The things you might want a hyper specialized droid for don't seem to be good PC material. You can just buy a medical droid or hovering spy droid and play a well-rounded character instead. Being able to usefully participate all the time is way more fun for everyone than twiddling your thumbs most of the time waiting for the occasional scene where you can make the other PCs look weak.

This is kind of what I'm afraid of. I'm not a min/maxer, and will be playing a Droid based off of an idea I have. But I can't shake the feeling that, I would have always been better off just being a Human instead.

I don't think that droids are brokenly bad, but nobody in my group will touch them for a PC. This doesn't bother us, since we don't really think of droids as "real characters" anyway.

This is kind of what I'm afraid of. I'm not a min/maxer, and will be playing a Droid based off of an idea I have. But I can't shake the feeling that, I would have always been better off just being a Human instead.

If you are not a min/maxer and it fits your concept, why would it be better? I've seen many rave about the customizability of droids and others not. I think it comes down to personal preference.

This is kind of what I'm afraid of. I'm not a min/maxer, and will be playing a Droid based off of an idea I have. But I can't shake the feeling that, I would have always been better off just being a Human instead.

If you are not a min/maxer and it fits your concept, why would it be better? I've seen many rave about the customizability of droids and others not. I think it comes down to personal preference.

This to me means that droids are balanced. Some say they are terribly broken and others don't think they are good enough. They are very good if you just want to do one thing and do it really well. But, a good GM will role play some disadvantages for you if you try to do anything else. Make a Brawn 5 punch-bot? What do you think that would look like? Some large intimidating hunk of metal. That droid would be a hinderance for any socal interaction, or at least should be. On the flip side, if you want to be average at everything, droids just aren't quite good enough. Other races can have a more even stat line. Droids also run into other weird issues, such as the first few repair kits you get aren't as good as simpacks. But the extra soak and skills are nice. So, IMHO, Droids are pretty balanced.

If the character concept you want to roleplay is a human slicer, you're definitely missing out if you build a droid character.

If you want to roleplay a droid, then you'll get closer to that type of character by building a droid.

Mechanically, droids are easier to make good at one specialty, whereas other races (especially Humans) are more adept at being versatile.

This is kind of what I'm afraid of. I'm not a min/maxer, and will be playing a Droid based off of an idea I have. But I can't shake the feeling that, I would have always been better off just being a Human instead.

If you are not a min/maxer and it fits your concept, why would it be better? I've seen many rave about the customizability of droids and others not. I think it comes down to personal preference.

Because noone wants to be worse than everyone else in the party. Noone wants to watch everyone else get to be good at a lot of different things and be stuck doing one thing well, which is why I have/had some hesitation.

This is kind of what I'm afraid of. I'm not a min/maxer, and will be playing a Droid based off of an idea I have. But I can't shake the feeling that, I would have always been better off just being a Human instead.

If you are not a min/maxer and it fits your concept, why would it be better? I've seen many rave about the customizability of droids and others not. I think it comes down to personal preference.

I agree, I don't understand this at all.

If you're only going after a specific mechanical effect, that is, a certain number of dice to roll or a certain ability with skills, then there may be a better choice.

But if the character you want to roleplay is a droid, just pick a droid? The species are balanced enough, but they're not INTENDED to all be exactly the same and all be exactly as good at everything. Droids are different than humans.

If you want to roleplay a droid, maybe just choose a droid and don't worry about it too much.

If you are not a min/maxer and it fits your concept, why would it be better? I've seen many rave about the customizability of droids and others not. I think it comes down to personal preference.

Because noone wants to be worse than everyone else in the party. Noone wants to watch everyone else get to be good at a lot of different things and be stuck doing one thing well, which is why I have/had some hesitation.

If that's all your GM cares about for giving you the spotlight, then the problem is that he or she is coming into this with a min/maxing mindset. So long as your concept is solid and you play your character well enough, any decent GM would give you the chance to shine. Maybe you won't have as many game-changing dice rolls, but you should still have a say in how the story plays out.

A droid can be PIVOTAL because they're a specialist at whatever they specialize in.

If they're the party's heavy guns, they'll get to fight a lot. If they're the party's Mechanic, there should be plenty of hull trauma to fix, plenty of blast doors to slice, bombs to defuse, central computers to hack into, etc.

If they're the party's "face", such as a protocol droid, they should have plenty of chances to charm, socialize, negotiate and influence.

Just like any other character, really. The game is pretty well-balanced.

A couple of my players have made droids and they all have had a lot of fun making exactly what they want and managed to be pretty entertaining as characters.

Like some people have said, they are generally best at being the best at one or two things that's about it. However, I wouldn't say they are at any particularly significant disadvantage.

This is kind of what I'm afraid of. I'm not a min/maxer, and will be playing a Droid based off of an idea I have. But I can't shake the feeling that, I would have always been better off just being a Human instead.

If you are not a min/maxer and it fits your concept, why would it be better? I've seen many rave about the customizability of droids and others not. I think it comes down to personal preference.

Because noone wants to be worse than everyone else in the party. Noone wants to watch everyone else get to be good at a lot of different things and be stuck doing one thing well, which is why I have/had some hesitation.

Worse at what?

Guess what, the Bounty hunter is worse at talking than the politico. The Slicer is worse at shooting than the Merc. The Doc is worse at customizing gear than the Outlaw Tech.

On top of that, unless you put all your starting XP into one stat, after you get a couple hundred XP the differences are even smaller.

If I'm not mistaken, the overarching category for this forum is 'Roleplaying' games, not 'Statplaying' games.

Play your story, not the numbers.

I like the weird dichotomy of people razzing people for thinking the Droid might be too mechanically weak, while the general fretting and criticism of Jedi in the early iterations of Star Wars RPGs were they were too good mechanically on this board.

Either mechanical strength matters or it doesn't. It can't be both ways.

(I'm not even sure the Droid actually is weak, I suspect it might be to a degree, but haven't really tried hard to check, just a lot of noise over people wanting to play characters who aren't underpowered compared to their neighbor seems really rude.)

I like the weird dichotomy of people razzing people for thinking the Droid might be too mechanically weak, while the general fretting and criticism of Jedi in the early iterations of Star Wars RPGs were they were too good mechanically on this board.

Either mechanical strength matters or it doesn't. It can't be both ways.

(I'm not even sure the Droid actually is weak, I suspect it might be to a degree, but haven't really tried hard to check, just a lot of noise over people wanting to play characters who aren't underpowered compared to their neighbor seems really rude.)

Not true. Something significantly stronger can keep an entire rest of the party from being able to do anything. Like Wizards in early D&D. Something being a bit weaker? Nearly zero effect on the game as long as the GM is already working to give each player a chance to shine.

I like the weird dichotomy of people razzing people for thinking the Droid might be too mechanically weak, while the general fretting and criticism of Jedi in the early iterations of Star Wars RPGs were they were too good mechanically on this board.

Either mechanical strength matters or it doesn't. It can't be both ways.

(I'm not even sure the Droid actually is weak, I suspect it might be to a degree, but haven't really tried hard to check, just a lot of noise over people wanting to play characters who aren't underpowered compared to their neighbor seems really rude.)

Not true. Something significantly stronger can keep an entire rest of the party from being able to do anything. Like Wizards in early D&D. Something being a bit weaker? Nearly zero effect on the game as long as the GM is already working to give each player a chance to shine.

2-3 sessions worth of XP isn't "a bit". I'd be pretty miffed if the GM handed out XP to everyone else at the end of a session and told me I wasn't getting any because it would, like, build character. I'd be seriously put out if it happened two or three times in a row. Besides, why make them weaker to begin with? All the other species are built on pretty much the same number of points, why the exception?

Further, your allies claim that droids are awesome because you can hyperspecialize. As an aside, comparing a 5 agility droid with other stats of 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 to a 5 agility Sullustan with other stats of 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 doesn't look all that great. Anyway, stomping hard in one narrow area and being nearly useless elsewhere means that occasionally you make the rest of the party look like chumps. And the other 80% of the time, they carry your PC around while you sit on the couch playing Smash Bros. Neither of those situations is fun for the group, GM included. Yes, the GM can make Aquaman look good by always sinking a cruise ship, or giving the villains an underwater base, or having them discuss their world domination plans next to a shark tank, but it gets tedious pretty fast.

Droids only stay hyper-specialized if the players keep them that way. The way skills and attributes work means that with some investment you can make a droid more proficient in other areas, thus simulating an actual droid built for one thing gaining sentience and more knowledge and ability. Do they tend to start out focused? Absolutely. But there is no reason they should stay that way.

For the 5 starting stat, fact is it depends on which stat you put it in since some of them hogle 70% of the game competences.

Also the droids have more "slot" for cybernetics ehancement and can arguably equip and swap them more easily than their organic counterpart which is a way to overcome the lower starting stat.

I like the weird dichotomy of people razzing people for thinking the Droid might be too mechanically weak, while the general fretting and criticism of Jedi in the early iterations of Star Wars RPGs were they were too good mechanically on this board.

Either mechanical strength matters or it doesn't. It can't be both ways.

(I'm not even sure the Droid actually is weak, I suspect it might be to a degree, but haven't really tried hard to check, just a lot of noise over people wanting to play characters who aren't underpowered compared to their neighbor seems really rude.)

Not true. Something significantly stronger can keep an entire rest of the party from being able to do anything. Like Wizards in early D&D. Something being a bit weaker? Nearly zero effect on the game as long as the GM is already working to give each player a chance to shine.

2-3 sessions worth of XP isn't "a bit". I'd be pretty miffed if the GM handed out XP to everyone else at the end of a session and told me I wasn't getting any because it would, like, build character. I'd be seriously put out if it happened two or three times in a row. Besides, why make them weaker to begin with? All the other species are built on pretty much the same number of points, why the exception?

Further, your allies claim that droids are awesome because you can hyperspecialize. As an aside, comparing a 5 agility droid with other stats of 2, 1, 1, 1, 1 to a 5 agility Sullustan with other stats of 2, 2, 2, 2, 1 doesn't look all that great. Anyway, stomping hard in one narrow area and being nearly useless elsewhere means that occasionally you make the rest of the party look like chumps. And the other 80% of the time, they carry your PC around while you sit on the couch playing Smash Bros. Neither of those situations is fun for the group, GM included. Yes, the GM can make Aquaman look good by always sinking a cruise ship, or giving the villains an underwater base, or having them discuss their world domination plans next to a shark tank, but it gets tedious pretty fast.

If you cant figure out how to participate when you are hyperspecialized, and you play a different game during that time, then the problem isnt with the game.

Droids get a rather expensive talent, a bunch of minor immunities, and a couple extra skill levels. That isnt a minor thing against the XP they dont get.

I think the main point is that it's very easy to have fun playing a droid, especially if you are a roleplayer and have an imagination.

If you just want to move numbers around on a piece of paper so that your numbers are the best numbers and better than everybody else's numbers, then I don't know what to tell you.

Everyone I've seen playing droids in this game has been enjoying themselves.