This is something that is talked A LOT on many online MMOs to the point some builds become so good it gets it's own name. Even D&D had it's leveling guides to min/max your character.

But i have not seen that for this game. Well that should change.

I have not played this game, only been doing this as a GM. And i have some general ideas how you should go about it. Even some more powerful talents.

Players are the start should put almost all their points into attributes, usually this will lead to all twos and Two 3s. Or a 4 with all twos or a 5 and maybe a 3 offset by a 1. Your career specialization skills are going to be the only skills you might have a rank in.

But after the initial start, where does the XP go? Talents? More specialization? Skills?

give me your thoughts

and when do you think you really have maxed out your character?

Do not min/max a character, have fun... role play, have more fun, enjoy.

Min/Max is bad.

That is all I have to say about that.

Do not min/max a character, have fun... role play, have more fun, enjoy.

Min/Max is bad.

That is all I have to say about that.

Exactly there is always talk on this board about min/max and how it spoils the game. The game was made for roll play not constantly defeating the system. That's why other games get overpowered.

As a player I just build the character that's roughly how the person I want to play would be.

Then as I go I get skills and talents that seem to be useful at the time.

When I see people discussing which species would be "best" as a melee fighter, or what's the fastest path to this or that Talent I just realize it's a completely different mindset from mine.

I'm far more likely to determine "I just think Wookiees are fun, I'd like to roleplay one" rather than caring specifically about what their Brawn is or how much XP they get to start. It's just about making a fun character that is enjoyable to roleplay.

I don't mean to be harsh, but four decades of tabletop roleplaying and sixteen years of online MMO gaming has given me a certain perspective. The min/max mindset comes from MMOs mostly now, though it pre-dated those originally. It makes a few very flawed assumptions:

1. The game is about skill check rolls . The game is about role -playing, not roll -playing. Skill checks and the die rolls are useful tools to assist in the narrative and put reasonable constraints on what the players can do with their characters in the story. The focus should be on the story, who is doing what, how they're doing it, why they're doing it, not how much they succeeded on a roll.
   
2. The objective is to win all the time . This is a cooperative game, not an adversarial or competitive game. The PCs should occasionally fail, and run away, or get captured/hurt and lose their stuff. Also importantly, no single character should be the star all the time. If you want to play a superhero game, there are other systems and genres for that.
   
3. A group is best if every character is awesome at one thing . This is a holdover from D&D, where classes defined the characters, limited what they could do, and forced a group to cover all the essential classes to be able to succeed. It's ok to have overlap in skills and abilities. It's also ok if something that is often needed is woefully underrepresented in the group. This helps drive the story and allows the players and their characters to come up with intricate and create ways to overcome an obstacle. Much more enjoyable than: "This one is my specialty? I use my awesome min/maxed ability to overcome it easily... again."

So while I see where you're reasoning comes from, I urge you to abandon it and try something different. FFG's version of Star Wars is so much more than simply "beating" an adventure. Try to adjust your perspective to that of having the "best" character means the one that is the most well-rounded in personality, has the most depth in background, and the greatest ability to tell their own story while working with others. Not just "has the highest rolls."

/salute

If all you want to do is min max on a skill, be a droid

Think up your concept, and build it to meet that idea. Don't finagle the numbers to be a superstar in the rules, finagle your role-playing to be the superstar in the story.

That's how I build characters anyway.

Yeah I almost never min/max a character intentionally. Closest I come to that is ones I've literally played for years and gotten up to level 20 or beyond in Saga terms or earned and poured hundreds of points into a character in non-level based systems. I do my best to stick to my plan or any changes to it that IC events force me to make but at that point its hard not to seem overpowered unless you intentionally sabotage your build.

I've been leveling thing based on what my character has done, such as one campaign my character was hand writing binary to be able to send a message to a droid to relay to some other NPCs, after that session I put a point into "Speaks Binary", if my character does a lot of mechanic checks, I throw some points in mechanics/mechanic related talents. Gets his *** kicked while he is being interrogated? That made him tougher, so I level up his wound/strain threshold. He has done a lot of inventing...buy scientist tree.

I like leveling my character this way, because it seems to be more about the story, then the system, I highly doubt my character is going to become better at shooting heavy blasters when the previous session I got the XP from he was building a droid from scavenged parts.

Yeah that's how I do it. Its just sometimes I pick skills and talents based on what he's been doing off screen as well as on, which annoyed some people in a group I was part of once because we had a long time jump with everyone getting bonus points and I spent mine on things my character had been studying off screen during the gap rather then skills he had used in scenes.

I tend to only increase one or two attributes, usually to a 3, but I'll increase one from a 1 to a 2 most times, it depends on my concept. That way I have more points for skills and talents, maybe even starting a second Spec Tree. A lot of it is based on how I see the character and what fits. min-max I think hurts more than it helps..

I would suggest a twist on this. Rather than min/maxing your character, I'd offer a guide as to what dice pools you ought to aim for if your character is decent or excel at that.

When building a new character, I aim to have my characteristics be at least a 3 for the skills my character is supposed to be good at.

If you want to be helpful at combat, start with your combat characteristic (Agility or Brawn) at least 3.

If you want to be helpful at modifying weapons, fixing ships, being a medic, start with Intellect at least 3.

If you want to be helpful at charming or negotiating, start with Presence at least 3.

In my large group of 6 players, we had several characters that didn't start with a characteristic above 3. Having 3 or 4 characteristics at 3 dice is pretty useful. They've proven to be much more versatile in the story than the player who dumped their starting XP into one characteristic.

I typically invest as much of my starting experience into characteristics as I can, but don't try and push any characteristics higher than a 4 on an alien species or 3 on a human as I prefer a well rounded character and plan for slowly raising stats via Dedication as time goes by.

Depending on the play group I usually focus on talents over skills to prolong the difficulty usually only investing heavily into skills where I am feeling particularly challenged until I have at least 2 specializations.

My current Thief>Force Sensitive Exile>Force Sensitive Emergent>Recruit still has just 1 characteristic at 4(Agility) and no skills trained higher than 3 for example with very little invested into Force Powers aside from Sense so far.

I tried a game before EotE but my character was given to me. I took over an NPC. In that case, I got what I got. That was fine for me because I had no clue what to expect from an rpg.

My EotE character was the first character I ever made and I haven't made another since (my group has the superstition that if you make a character, your current character will die) so I don't have a strategy. I did it and still do it a lot like Progressions said above. If I do stuff or would like to do stuff, I'll spend points there. I think that's how I'd do it in any rpg I play.

This game more than any I've played is about the character concept. You really should just pull out a sheet of paper, virtual or tangible, and start writing a background and a concept. Think about past fiction or even true to life historical figures possibly and write something up. Then take that and try and select a career/spec that will let your concept fit into the system and then go ahead and play. There is little reason to power game this system, a decent agility and some pretty basic weapon upgrades and everyone is more than competent in combat, so you're cheating yourself if you don't take a jack of all trades approach to a certain degree.

Wow, great to see all the replies encouraging role-playing!

More than most games, this one actually allows you to play whoever you want without a need to 'optimize'. This isn't 4E.

Because the system is so easy to 'game', I'd suggest that optimizing actually spoils your fun here.

What is your earliest memory?

What sort of a child were you, when you were little?

What is one action you regret?

Did you feel that one or the other of your parents favored you over your brothers or sisters?

Have you ever had a serious illness? What was it like?

Why do you live where you live?

Why did you pick your job?

What was the happiest time of your life?

What kind of things do you think are funny?

What sort of person did you think your husband or wife was when you first met?

Have you ever spoken any words of anger that you wish you could take back?

What is your very favorite food?

How do you spend your holidays?

Where have you traveled in your life?

Was there ever a time when you began to think that life might not turn out as well as you hoped it would?

What makes you cry?

Are you a vengeful, forgiving, or indifferent person?

What were you doing last week?

What was the best news you ever got?

What was the worst news you ever got?

What path in your life do you wish you could have found out where it lead?

What choice in your life are you glad about?

How did you meet the people you are with now?

I pour everything I can into characteristics and try to pick my free talents so that they benefit from each other .

So for example when I'm playing a smuggler pilot I tend to pick piloting space as a smuggler AND as a pilot.

When I get my first XP, I pick stuff I think my character has picked up in his youth. Like my Corellian Spy doesn't need education, core worlds or piloting planetary, but he's from Corellia, so he should have stuff like that.

I agree with all the importance of backstory posts and role-playing over roll-playing posts here, I really do. That said, "Hi, I'm Domingo, and I'm a min/maxer." I'm not really a min/maxer though, just a bit OCD with planning out future XP expenditures. I have a vision in my mind of how I want my character to evolve and how to get there (in the form of actual prioritized lists...really OCD). I don't do this in an attempt to break the system. I just want to be effective in the role I am in.

I role-play at the table. It's not like after the intial character creation I can create more meaningful story without the GM or players present. My XP planning is what I do when I'm away from the table (when not making maps/schematics/assorted gaming aids). I guess its ok to have an XP plan, just don't talk about it.

I role-play at the table. It's not like after the intial character creation I can create more meaningful story without the GM or players present. My XP planning is what I do when I'm away from the table (when not making maps/schematics/assorted gaming aids). I guess its ok to have an XP plan, just don't talk about it.

What happens in the spreadsheet, stays in the spreadsheet.

Most of the time I GM, and I try to reinforce something with my players that Admiral Terghon brought up in a post in this thread.

Sometimes players identify too strongly with their characters, feeling that if the character succeeds at what they're trying to do, that represents a 'success' for the player, and if the PC fails that is a 'failure' for the player.

But in pulp adventure like Star Wars, the heroes fail ALL THE TIME. They get captured by the enemy, they get shot, they get betrayed by their friends, they fall short of what they're trying to do. James Bond gets captured in every adventure he has. The heroes of Star Wars get captured in every movie. They're not invincible supermen who can't ever be defeated. They're people who have to work hard and keep getting up every time they get knocked down in order to eventually succeed!

As a writer, George Lucas could have easily said "Luke is so great, all he has to do is just wave at the Death Star and it blows up and the Empire is defeated and everyone is happy." But it's way more fun to constantly challenge him.

I think players are well served to develop a kind of detachment from their characters, and to recognize that sometimes what is bad for the character is good for the story and for everybody's entertainment.

This is something that is talked A LOT on many online MMOs to the point some builds become so good it gets it's own name. Even D&D had it's leveling guides to min/max your character.

But i have not seen that for this game. Well that should change.

Why?

What is your earliest memory?

What sort of a child were you, when you were little?

What is one action you regret?

Did you feel that one or the other of your parents favored you over your brothers or sisters?

Have you ever had a serious illness? What was it like?

Why do you live where you live?

Why did you pick your job?

What was the happiest time of your life?

What kind of things do you think are funny?

What sort of person did you think your husband or wife was when you first met?

Have you ever spoken any words of anger that you wish you could take back?

What is your very favorite food?

How do you spend your holidays?

Where have you traveled in your life?

Was there ever a time when you began to think that life might not turn out as well as you hoped it would?

What makes you cry?

Are you a vengeful, forgiving, or indifferent person?

What were you doing last week?

What was the best news you ever got?

What was the worst news you ever got?

What path in your life do you wish you could have found out where it lead?

What choice in your life are you glad about?

How did you meet the people you are with now?

Wow I usually answer only a few of these in mine.

I always cover my character's homeworld, their parents and what jobs they have, where they are from,a re they dead or alive and if they died how. Usually I cover how they met, why they live where they live, and sometimes their political beliefs, especially if the last is linked to their deaths. (For example I had one character I played two versions of in different campaigns and timelines. His parents were die hard CIS supporters because they had lost their jobs at the shipyards over their homeworld and had to move to another world to get lower paying jobs because an overzealous Judical inspector declared the ships they were working on illegal. <The ships were 604 met long with a class 2 hyperdrive, and the Republic law at the said anything longer then 600 meters had to have class 5 or slower hyperdrives.> Anyway his mother died in a mysterious accident rumored, and later confirmed to be Imperial sabotage while his father was executed by the ISB about 10 years later because an ISB agent overheard him insulting the Empire in a bar which led one version of the character to join the Alliance Navy while the other became an anti-Imperial pirate who later became an Alliance Privateer then an Alliance naval officer.)

I also cover any siblings and lovers they have or had and their fates, any childhood experiences which helped set them on the career path they ended up on. If they were orphaned young I cover who raised them after that. In the rare case that I make an Alderaanian GCW or New Republic era character I make sure to cover why they were off world when the Death Star hit the planet. Plus if they start with cybernetic parts I explain how they got the injury which led to the need for cybernetics and any hobbies or oddities they have.

And of course what motivated them to join the faction they are part of if they have allegiance to a particular faction, what groups they like, what ones they hate or dislike and usually how they got their ship if they start out owning one. Plus any significant battles they participated in or ones which helped them reach their current rank and position if they are military or some form of paramilitary or merc/privateer, and their first postings and usually any postings in between that and their current posting. Especially any posting which tie to them getting the posting they are currently in. For non military merc, or privateer characters I cover what jobs they held in the past and where.

I always imagine talking in character before I create a character. And none of my characters can be described as "balanced". I do prefer the roleplaying aspect of it all, but I do like building characters as a way of passing time during a particularly boring class.

One of my favourites was B-R5RB: a prototype medical droid that was designed to go into disaster zones and perform emergency triage. Rebels stole him and turned him into a combat medic. After I had this story in mind, I had to build the character.

Built to withstand disaster zones: will require heavy lifting and durability. Brawn 3 to start.
Coordination and weapons protocols are important as well: agility 3.
Isn't meant for hospital work, so he doesn't need 4 to intelligence, but 3 should be good.
Cunning to me spells creativity, and this guy is purpose built. No need for creativity: 1 cunning.
Willpower needs to be half decent to endure stressful situations that accompany disaster zones. 2 willpower.

He also needs an acceptable bedside manner. At the same time, he isn't meant for rehabilitation, just triage. 2 presence.

This was a very fun character to play. Well balanced, and a fun personality. Earned the nickname "Bloodbath" after a few sessions. Not due to combat, mind you. His medical practice was...well...
They signed waivers.

I even though I make char that could be deemed *overpowered* I usually don't play them that way. For example, my current char.

Haas McGraa- He's a Xexto from a farming family from Chandrila. He helped his ma and pa out on the farm day in and day out. Boring.... But he loved his family and was happy to help. For sport he took some junked farming vehicles and slapped together a "swoop" and got into an amature racing circuit on the planet.

After years of farming and racing, his ma and pa passed and he was running the farm by himself. All he had was his farm, his pa's jury-rigged blaster rifle with a pistol grip "Big Iron" and his junk swoop. Then one day a Firespray-31 landed in his field and a gruff looking dude walked up to Haas' porch to do some bartering.

Noticing his junky swoop, the man made a snide comment and a race was challenged and accepted after some heated words. The stakes were the man's ship and The McGraa Farm.

Haas won.

The man reached for his pistol.

Haas was faster.

Haas then sold the farm and purchased the essentials for a life among the stars. He also modified the controls to be more like that of a swoop. He then took to the sky to live the life of a Space Cowboy.

----------------------------------------------

So there is some backstory. When playing him I keep a kind of neutrality to the group, I'm with them and I help them but I am actually not apart of the main crew of the main ship, a Gozanti. He flies his own ship, buys things with his own money **they have a communal "ship fund" in place which Haas does not utilize** The group is cool with this and it works out well since Haas often gets them out of trouble.

How I built him? He's a Ace-Rigger. He is currently at **3**Br 5Agi 2Int 2Cu 2Wil 2Pres. **Cybernetics** His primary skills are in Piloting and Gunslinging. Normal space cowboy stuff, he has been racing swoops since child hood and was a true to the word Cowboy. Secondary skills are Mechanics and Computers. He built his swoop as a boy from junk parts and regularly tweaked it for racing. This tinkering mentality spilled over to his ship, weapons, cybernetics... He's the type that just can't leave something stock. *I'm the same was in real life with cars lol Cyberbrain implant coming soon....when i can afford it.

Due to his high agility, in space he's a monster. We do some homebrew stuff and he flys a homebrewed super-heavy fighter that provides support for the Gozanti. On the ground he's gun slinging and hacking/fixing things. However, we have delt with some pretty gnarly stuff. IG Assasin droids, took a snap shot of a certain space station being built, manning a flak-gun against a TIE Bomber wing.

Is he built to be strong and reaaaalllyy good at what he does? Yep! Did he almost get 1 shotted by IG-88B? YEP! Granted I did run him into a wall with a Speeder Truck.....