All

I've finally got a copy of the rulebook and I'm reading through character creation. One of the things that I'm really keen on is creating a droid character. They seem to really offer a lot of free range to make whatever I want.

However, if i'm understanding the character creation rules correctly, then I'm going to need to spend an immense amount of experience just to get some decent starting stats. They get more starting EXP to do this, but it doesn't seem to be enough to have reasonable stats and still be able to invest any points in skills and talents. I'm not after anything OP, but just getting a single stat up to 3 uses up a LOT of the available points.

I understand that droids are intended to be, in many ways, inferior to organic beings, often designed around only being proficient at a single task, but I still expected them to be a little balanced with the other races.

If this is the full intention of the rules, and droids are meant to be picked only for the RP goodness they bring, then I'm ok with that, but it's not quite what I was expecting.

Am I missing something? Are droids actually just as good as everything else and I just need more experience to figure it out?

Droids are far more specialised than organics, when generating a droid character you can achieve a halfway decent character by concentrating mainly on skills. Remember, your dice pool is built up using the totals of both skill and stat. If you have a skill of 2 and a stat of 1 you roll 1Y 1G. I would increase the stat or stats relevant to your characters focus and then pile the rest into skills and talents.

Opinions can vary. Droids can be very focused and very good at their focus. Otherwise they are working as intended.

If you break it down by point values, they're not unbalanced. Assuming an attribute score of 1 costs 0 XP at character creation, we can break things down this way:

HUMANS

[20] Brawn 2

[20] Agility 2

[20] Intellect 2

[20] Cunning 2

[20] Willpower 2

[20] Presence 2

[0] WT = 10+Brawn

[0] ST = 10+Willpower

[20] Free rank in 2 non-career skills

[110] Bonus XP

[250] Total

DROIDS

[0] Brawn 1

[0] Agility 1

[0] Intellect 1

[0] Cunning 1

[0] Willpower 1

[0] Presence 1

[0] WT = 10+Brawn

[0] ST = 10+Willpower

[10] Doesn't eat

[10] Doesn't sleep

[10] Doesn't breathe

[10] Immune to toxins and poisons

[10] Cybernetic implant cap of 6

[20] +1 rank in +2 career skills

[10] +1 rank in +1 specialization skill

[-10] Can't use Medicine or rest to heal

[10] Immune to mind-altering Force powers

[-10] Can't become Force-sensitive or use Force powers

[5] Enduring 1

[175] Bonus XP

[240] Total

So, Humans and droids are in the same ballpark XP-wise. Granted, the exact values of all the droid special abilities and drawbacks are debatable, but players do need to take those special qualities into account when choosing droids, and GMs should give droid characters chances to flex those abilities and prove their worth in adventures.

Plus, with them having their Cybernetic cap of 6 (higher than any organic), they can increase their characteristics with money a lot easier than organics can.

I've created an ex police 501-Z who got so obsessed with his deep cover that he became the perfect criminal and forgot he was a police droid.

He has 213411 characteristics with the low willpower and presence fitting his character of being non description and ill disciplined, he is a Smuggler / Thief. Still only uses non lethal attacks though he doesn't know why.

I named him IE5-O to reflect his past.