Hello all,

I am making a character is a heavy mechanic and computer focused technician and am probably going to use a Drall to do it. My question is since both agility and brawl start at 1, will there be a need to do some weapons training to improve this to keep alive in a fight or will just leaving them alone be fine? I know a lot depends on the story, the gm, and I should just build the character I want. What I am getting at how big is combat in Edge of the Empire, is it worth knowing which way a blaster shoots?

Thanks

You're going to use agility for more than just shooting, and if you don't raise it you'll only be asking for a respec in a few sessions.

Thanks, is two high enough?

It all depends on what kinds of combat you are going to get into and how difficult it is. If you shoot one gun, at short range all the time, it will probably get you by. Increase range though and you won't be doing well. Plus a group is only as stealthy as the loudest PC, so your Stealth checks won't be great. If you are planning on a 5 intellect you'll hate yourself later on that you neglected your other characteristics.

I recommend bringing both Brawn and Agility to 2. It doesn't take much XP at the start and it makes for a considerably more active character than the typical Drall. Since we're talking about a PC, that's very likely a good thing. Even if you do this, you can still have your Intellect 5 if you want it.

I was planning on leaving the intellect at 4 and playing around with the idea of having both agility and brawn moved up to 2 or just agility up to three. I am not trying to make a combat oriented character, just trying not to make a regret. Is intelligence 5 worth it?

I'd go with your plan of 2 Brawn and Agility. You'll be better served. If you want to get better at combat just pick a Range skill and focus on that for your combat capacity.

Just like you said, a lot depends on the story and the GM. My party routinely has at least 2 non-combatants. I'm in a multi-GM campaign and we always try to find things for less combat oriented characters to do in big battles. The social characters sometimes get enemies to flee or defect to our side, while the intellectuals sometimes hack into security turrets or repair derelict droids to fight for them.

One of the PCs is a diplomat who has only fired a blaster once in over 20 games, and he's still having a blast (pun intended) . Chat with your GM and see where he or she is going with the story, then if combat seems to be a big focus, ask if it might be possible to add some alternatives for less martial characters like your own. Good luck!

Depends, but 1 in Brawn and 1 in Agility isn't going to kill you. That being said, bumping up to 2 in Agility is generally going to be pretty useful since guns, Stealth, and Coordination are all linked to it, and grabbing even just the first 2 skill ranks in say, Ranged (Light), ends up costing 25xp by itself if it's not a career skill.

Brawn contributes a fair amount to a character: extra Soak, more Wounds, more stuff you can carry, Athletics, and Resilience. But if you're going to try and stick to the side during combat, and maybe trying to find alternative methods of participating in combat, then the Soak and Wounds become less important. Resilience isn't too big a deal unless you're going somewhere poisonous or trying to heal your own Critical Injuries, which again, will mostly just come into play if you can't get a doctor to patch you up or if you're getting into the heat of battle a lot. And just latch onto to a Brawn-y player like Yoda on Luke for Athletics checks.

I recommend agility 3, it comes up too often not be used. Brawn is probably more skip able sure your going to miss soak and wounds so depending on group size you could get away with it.

If you can I'd start with extra obligation for xp and start with Int 4 (drall), Agilty 3 and cunning 3 with the rest been 2s.

Oh, I don't think its anywhere near as critical as everyone is making it out to be, but these are the same thoughts that say one shouldn't play a D&D wizard who doesn't have a 14 Dex & Con.

If you expect your character to be sneaking, flying and blasting away, then yes, you should have Agility. But at that point your not just playing a Drall Technician, your playing a sneaky pilot gunslinger who's a technician. We have two characters in our group who have 1s in both Agility and Brawn and they haven't been the death of us yet. We usually have to find something else to do in combat other then shoot the guy (though one has sufficient skill ranks to do that reasonably anyway) We usually let the pilot do the driving, and stay behind on the comms when the sneak is sneaking.

The point being, if you have 1s in stats, your going to make an effort to avoid the checks that require those attributes - It's natural both as players and as people. You just can't leave the 1s and expect to be a generalist. So really, it depends on how you want to play, and how the game plays out. Can you afford to be a specialist? Is everyone else expecting you to sneak everywhere with them? Does anyone else in your party know how to use a blaster? And these are all questions that effect more than just your Agility and Brawn scores.

My non-combat politico has 2 in both brawn and ability and I get along just fine. I'm going to be increasing my combat eventually here soon, but we've been playing for a while now and I've had no complaints.

One of my players has a politico type with 2 Agility and no ranks in Ranged Light, but after applying his pistol's Accurate quality, and making sure he Aims twice, he hits pretty regularly. So long as you don't care about anything else Agility-related, you could easily get by with 1 Agility (combat-wise) if you bought 2 skill ranks in Ranged Light, giving you a base pool of YG, and then had the proper equipment and took your time.

My group's Doc is not made for combat at all. Honestly if the group is counting on her to bring someone down in combat then things have gone horribly wrong. Ultimately though it comes down to your GM's writing technique. If you GM is the type who can make combat thrilling for non-combat characters and keep you making meaningful contributions to the combat without using a blaster then I say go with how you want the character to play. Have a discussion with you GM and your other players on what your contribution to the group is and what kind of game your going to be playing.

Be creative, don't just leave it up to the gm to find something in combat for you to do. You don't have to be good with a blaster to use the environment to help your group. Cause chaos for the enemy with your wits. Make use of fire extinguishes, prep escape plans, create cover, set off the sprinklers, open hatches, bust windows, get civilians to safety, slice droids, take control of loading arms, jam com signals, and etc.

R2-D2 never picks up a blaster, but continually finds ways to help the main characters.