I'm not quite understanding why anyone would choose to have a Mentor instead of a Holocron or Ship. The others are controlled/useable by the PC's, but the Mentor doesn't seem to have any mechanical benefits at all. Should this option be removed, or should there be more tangible mechanical benefits (like he gives the party an allowance of credits or bonus XP each session)? Or is it just for parties that like a bigger challenge?

(And sorry if this is a repeat topic - but I don't see anything similar in the Mechanics section)

Why does it have to have a mechanical benefit to be useful?

To me it just seems out of place, since the other two have mechanical benefits and in the Order 66 podcast Sam Stewart mentioned that the holocron was given some cool mechanical abilities so that it would be roughly on par with giving the party a ship. Unfortunately he barely mentioned the Mentor option in the interview.

It's not that I personally care if it has mechanical benefits - my GM just ignored the starting ship thing for EotE and we only got one later narratively (we're employed by the owner, who was then later arrested... it's complicated); it's just that most of the time FFG is pretty good about balancing options when you have a choice - this part didn't seem balanced.

Well, for one, it fits the movies. Like, all of them. So on that front, it's kind of a big thing to include.

On top of that, an actual being, dead or alive, can provide way more insight than a small database from who knows when. For example, I'd rather have a mentor that has had to deal with hiding from the Empire and is capable of growing and learning, than a holocron that's a frozen state that could have vastly outdated knowledge from hundreds or even thousands of years ago. And it's always helpful to have a mentor that cares for the group having an ear to the ground to alert you of valuable resources or dangerous impending forces.

Also, I see the "don't let the mentor go with the group" thing as a general guideline. If the mentor needs to go with them somewhere to show the group something, they can, if they need to go with the group just so the mentor can be killed, they can. It's more so the GM doesn't go and make a GMPC that, much like the book says, dominates the game.

A ship can be destroyed. A holocron can be stolen. A Force-ghost mentor will always be there.

Not that I dislike having a Mentor option -- I think it's great -- but I must agree with the OP. All the previous party resource choices have been very solid and help to clearly define the structure of the campaign from square one. As is, Mentor seems a little pedestrian -- after all, helpful NPCs that dispense both sage advice and adventure hooks are not usually in short supply outside pure sandbox campaigns. Perhaps the Dev's already have some further elaboration text in store that will give this option more definition, something to differentiate between Mentor and other NPCs.

It's perfectly in keeping though with the philosophy of the signature abilities from far horizons and Enter the Unknown. One ability [sudden discovery, insightful revelation] has very little mechanical effect, and depends absolutely on the GM making the expenditure of resources meaningful. This makes many people less likely to take it because (i think) we've all been screwed over by GM's that didn't respect open ended abilities like these to make them properly effective.

Compared to the other signature abilities [unmatched expertise, unmatched mobility] where the effect is tangible and dependable. Your GM would have a hard time denying you the extra manuevers or decreased difficulties. So these are more attractive because they they have a more dependable and predictable effect in the game (not to mention combat applications).

It doesn't matter that the narrative abilities are more powerful (insightful revelation could avoid an entire set of encounters), and I'd like to know how the luke skywalker party would intend to disable the tractor beam with their 1300 freighter, or a holocron. Their mentor Obi-wan was a perfect choice. It's often the narrative ability that is the most powerful, but also the least predictable, since it depends on timing, communication, and good faith.