You've got Astromech Droids.. Protocol Droids.. Servicer Droids.. Combat Droids.. Destroyer Droids.. Those Box Droids with feat?? and many others.. Just as an example.. How do you build a Protocol Droid who speaks (is it?) 8,000,000 forms of communication? or an Astromech droid who has Mechanics and slicing along with all these little gadgets that pop out of him?

A droid can have 6 cybernetic attachments as a PC, so plenty of room for gadgets.

For the tools and such on an astromech there are several options.

1. Extra obligation during character creation for extra credits to purchase slicing gear and tool kit. Remember, droids can have objects built in to them - within reason.
2. The Utility Belt talent can allow a character to have whatever tool he needs (within the parameters of the talent) by way of a destiny point.
3. Even without the Utility Belt talent, a clever use of a Destiny Point and an open-minded GM can go far for such a character.
4. Just flavoring/narrating how a talent is used can go a long way in replicating the 3PO and D2 feel.

As for a knowing languages. There are no hard and fast rules. everyone knows how to speak the languages of those in the party, and that's the only mention about them. So you or your GM are free to come up with what's best for your game.

Some good ideas that have been suggested on these boards:

1. Knowledge Education or Knowledge Xenology to determine if a character knows a language and how well they know it (as determined by threat/advantage).
2. For droids: a piece of equipment that can be purchased that just lets them know all languages in the game except those that you don't (as determined by the plot).
3. A flip of a destiny point and a bit of narrative.
4. Whatever makes sense for the character and their backstory (did they know a wookiee during the clone wars who taught him shyriiwook?

Those Box Droids with feat??

Power droids.

How do you build a Protocol Droid who speaks (is it?) 8,000,000 forms of communication?

Over 6 million. And you do this by just saying that he does. This system doesn't do the languages check thing, so it's assumed that most character know the languages they need to know.

You can pump up knowledge skills like Xenology, Education, and Galactic Regions to help illustrate this knowledge of languages, etiquette, and protocol mechanically, and allow for rolling when dealing with especially obscure cultures and languages.

an Astromech droid who has Mechanics and slicing along with all these little gadgets that pop out of him?

This is actually super easy. Ranks in Computers, Ranks in Mechanics, and integrated tool kit, slicers tools, and any other electronic widgets you want to toss in. Integrated equipment is the same as normal equipment, you just say it's integrated.

The above cores can be used for NPC droids, as well as a baseline for building droid PCs.

In the source book, Edge of the Empire: Enter the Unknown there's a piece of gear called the Tranlang Holo V Audio/Visual Translator which is described as a similar device used in 3PO's and LOM series droids (TranLang III). You can use this device and have it installed into any droid to act as a Universal Translator. It's cost is 750 Credits, and would count as 1 Implant Slot for your droid.

Problem is, that there aren't any rules for NPC Droids yet. So probably when the Tech book comes out, there will be rules to customize an NPC droid and how much it will cost to add talents or stats or ranks etc. I have asked this question in an earlier post many moons ago. So if I have to be patient Padawan, then you have to.

Yeah, I am "slightly" disappointed with the vagueness of how Droid construction is currently with this system. I mean, it works in a pinch as is, but just not exactly what I was hoping for. I do hope that they either clarify it within the Tech Book when it comes out, or give them (Droids) their own specific book to detail and flesh out characters and NPCs of the Artificial Construct Persuasion.

I would be surprise if this isn't addressed in more detail in the Technician splatbook (whenever it finally comes out).

Yeah, I am "slightly" disappointed with the vagueness of how Droid construction is currently with this system. I mean, it works in a pinch as is, but just not exactly what I was hoping for. I do hope that they either clarify it within the Tech Book when it comes out, or give them (Droids) their own specific book to detail and flesh out characters and NPCs of the Artificial Construct Persuasion.

I'm in total agreement with you.

I play a modified R3 astromech slicer in our game, and I don't mind the vagueness. Droids get more skills and start with more XP and characteristics of 1 for a reason: the versatility to make any droid you want. With the cybernetics cap of 6 and the ability to consider equipment as internal mods, you have tons of possibilities. You can weapons and armor with hard points and add attachments and mods for even more possibilities.

For NPC droids adversaries do whatever you want and compare them to existing rivals and nemeses for relative difficulty level. If the PCs have a droid NPC, you could control it as the GM and treat it as a pseudo-PC awarding a fraction of the XP every so often to demonstrate a droids ability to grow and learn.

This is just my opinion, but I'd hate for the system to get as crunchy with equipment-based creation rules as...say...shadowrun.

In the source book, Edge of the Empire: Enter the Unknown there's a piece of gear called the Tranlang Holo V Audio/Visual Translator which is described as a similar device used in 3PO's and LOM series droids (TranLang III). You can use this device and have it installed into any droid to act as a Universal Translator. It's cost is 750 Credits, and would count as 1 Implant Slot for your droid.

I agree that this is a great way to make a protocol droid, but I'd rule that it doesn't actually take an implant slot since it is regular gear and not cybernetics. If you look the "Droids and Equipment" sidebar, CRB p. 47, droids are allowed to treat some equipment differently than others. This piece of equipment sounds very similar to their example of considering a datapad to be the equivalent of an upgraded verbobrain. No mention is made of the cybernetic implant cap when discussing equipment added in this way.

I agree. I believe the fact that you get maximum Implant Slots is meant to make up for the comparative lack of characteristics at the beginning of the game, since most cybernetic implants allow you to raise a characteristic by one. (That's the reason why droids overall are more balanced than many people think.)

Droid related question:

Maybe this is covered in Force and Destiny Beta , where I believe the Probe Droid shows up, but does anyone have any idea how to treat the Imperial Probe Droid's five arms. In addition to the regular blaster mounted onto the Probe, couldn't each claw/hand contain a weapon itself? In combat, would you treat them individually or lump them altogether, basically treating the droid like a minion group?

What if a player wanted to build a Probe Droid as his/her character? Any thoughts on special skills/qualities relating to the five appendages?

Droid related question:

Maybe this is covered in Force and Destiny Beta , where I believe the Probe Droid shows up, but does anyone have any idea how to treat the Imperial Probe Droids five arms. In addition to the regular blaster mounted onto the Probe, couldn't each claw/hand contain a weapon itself? In combat, would you treat them individually or lump them altogether, basically treating the droid like a minion group?

What if a player wanted to build a Probe Droid as his/her character? Any thoughts on special skills/qualities relating to the five appendages?

This is a good example of what I'm talking about.. Some droids seem difficult to build. Multiple arms? How do you handle multiple arms?

Droid related question:

Maybe this is covered in Force and Destiny Beta , where I believe the Probe Droid shows up, but does anyone have any idea how to treat the Imperial Probe Droids five arms. In addition to the regular blaster mounted onto the Probe, couldn't each claw/hand contain a weapon itself? In combat, would you treat them individually or lump them altogether, basically treating the droid like a minion group?

What if a player wanted to build a Probe Droid as his/her character? Any thoughts on special skills/qualities relating to the five appendages?

I would consider the Probe Droid as a rival at the least.

I would not allow more than two attacks and use the rules for two weapon combat (lowest characteristic, lowest skill, adding one difficult die if the same skill is used and two dice if the skills are different).

Did the probes actually carry multiple blasters? I wouldn't think so.

The multiple armed melee possibility is interesting though. Here are a few options that may not be too extreme:

1. Grant the Accurate 1 quality to the arms (adding Boost) to reflect the benefit of having multiple arms in attacking.

2. Increase the melee defense of the droid....its hard to get past those arms.

3. Grant the Linked 4 quality to allow the droid to hit another time for every two advantage used.

Giving these abilities to a PC to start may be a little unbalanced, but not too much.

I would consider the Probe Droid as a rival at the least.

That's what I was thinking, but if the multiple arms were used for excessive amounts of blasters, I thought the minion group rule might come into play.

Did the probes actually carry multiple blasters? I wouldn't think so.

In Empire , the Probe didn't even "carry" a blaster; it's mounted to the main chassis.

The multiple armed melee possibility is interesting though. Here are a few options that may not be too extreme:

1. Grant the Accurate 1 quality to the arms (adding Boost) to reflect the benefit of having multiple arms in attacking.

2. Increase the melee defense of the droid....its hard to get past those arms.

3. Grant the Linked 4 quality to allow the droid to hit another time for every two advantage used.

Giving these abilities to a PC to start may be a little unbalanced, but not too much.

Thanks a lot for those ideas!

I just checked F&D. The probe droid is a rival, but there are no stats for the use of its arms, only a built in heavy blaster pistol. However, looking at the electrostaff for the IG-100, they take into account the weapon qualities I suggested:

Electrostaff (Melee; Damage 9; Critical 3; Range [Engaged]; Cortosis, Cumbersome 3, Defensive 1, Linked 1, Stun setting, Unwieldy 3), armor plating (+2 soak, +1 defense).

...Interesting

In engaged brawl or melee combat with the Probe, I would probably bump up the Defensive rating to 2 at least, unless more of the arms are encumbered with something else.

I can see droids being able to purchase "advanced programming" which may have a cost and would be a stand alone Talents.

What about this?:

Career: Droid

Specialisations: 1st-5th degree

Just a random thought.