Hello!

My friend recently purchased the core rulebook and I'm now attempting to make a character.

I'm going with a Mirialan Consular Healer since we don't have a healer.

I personally have not played the game and my friend has only gone through the beginner game, but I'm familiar with most of the mechanics.

So my questions are mainly about healing.

How important is it? Important enough to go all out and get everything to make my healing more effective or can our party just sustain ourselves without one?

I'm not sure how many players there'll be but I'm pretty sure there'll be at least 4.

I don't want to waste my time with a character that isn't really needed.

Thanks!

Someone who can heals wounds is always welcome in a party. However, this isn't an MMO, so it is not a "required" member. But I very seriously doubt your fellow PCs would have any complaints about having someone around who can heal them either with medicine or the force or both.

The game I just started playing in has a Consular Healer in it who is also a medical doctor and she is super handy to have around.

I agree, a healer always works. You might also consider the Protector option in Guardian. They have some healing talents as well as defensive talents if you want a little more combat orientation (or at least defensive orientation in combat). Regardless, you can't go wrong with Consular/Healer especially if you combine it with Niman Disciple later. I had a couple of players use that to good effect in Beta.

Depends on the GM and the campaign. How heavy is the combat? How available are stimpacks?

My group tends to get in 2-3 combat encounters per session on average, with rest and downtime (and bacta!) usually available between sessions, and so far they've been able to subsist pretty well without a dedicated healer and just using stimpacks to keep themselves topped off. The occasional critical causes some pain, particularly last session's unlucky blaster cannon hit, but they've been able to keep themselves in one piece without having to rely on Heal or Medicine much.

It depends on the culture at your table as well. Some players are munchkins, some are ethereal fairy-people who are baffled by the concept of building a character to not die , and most strike a balance somewhere in-between. I try to encourage sensible character builds that include skills and talents necessary for survival (Parry, Reflect, ranks in Lightsaber, extra Strain and Wound threshhold, etc), while still encouraging roleplayed, reasonable choices that make sense for the character being played.

One of the healer tree's is very nice, but not essential. If you have somebody in the group with a couple ranks in medicine they can probably meet most of your medical needs. Especially if you have plenty of stimpacks around. That said, it's a great specialization and takes healing to the next level, really eliminating down time. A good GM should also add in situations to let your healing goodness shine.

The very best the Healer tree can offer is not really healing, IMHO; it's Improved Calming Aura.

With regards to healing and first aid, what counts as an "encounter"? Does a non-combat challenge count, and so healing can be performed after that?

I think an encounter is when you use structured time units (turns) to perform actions, but not sure right now (can't open the book atm)

Thanks for the replies guys!

I think I'll go through all of the classes and just pick which sounds like what I'd like to play since it seems a party's composition isn't that role centric.

Not in the traditional tank/ healer/ dps roles, no. General archetypes can still be useful to try and wrangle - almost every party needs a face, with social skills; a techie, with computers and mechanics; a gun bunny, for ranged combat; beyond that you can also have a medic, a sneak, a melee fighter, a pilot, etc. Mixing and matching can work well if you play to your strengths, but trying to be a jack of all trades in this setting can backfire easily.

Thanks for the replies guys!

I think I'll go through all of the classes and just pick which sounds like what I'd like to play since it seems a party's composition isn't that role centric.

I agree that you should play the class that you like. As others have said a group normally needs one PC with social skills, one with computer skill and one with mechanical skill and a heavy hitter. The other skills are typically used less often, but it will depend on the mission and what your GM does. While a healer is not an absolute requirement, my group has run both with and without a healer and combats are easier with a healer to keep the front line PCs in the battle as well as to help them recover quickly afterward.

This is long and I apologise, but I hope it helps.

Healing is so easy in this system with Stim Packs that a medic can really make for a resilient party.

I would suggest your group have a Session 0, during which you all discuss the core off the campaign you want to play. Without it you could end up where the GM is making a Military campaign focused on space and ground battles or behind enemy lines, then 1 PC is thinking of a Smuggling game, another wants to run a Homestead, a 3rd PC wants to go exploring Wild Space and the last PC is looking through ruins for Jedi Artifacts. That campaign is a nightmare as no one is working together to build a story.

In the Session 0 you should cover things like:

Length of campaign (3 sessions, 10 sessions, 50 sessions), this helps Players plan the future advancement of their PC and GM plan plot twists

Type of campaign; eg Military, Smuggling, Bounty Hunting, Rebellion, Exploration, Diplomatic (you can often base them on one of the careesr for inspiration, not that every PC will be of that career though)

Location; is it around a Single center place such as a Homestead, Military Base, planet or space station? Or is the Party focal point a Ship or even a Rebel home fleet that they keep coming back too?

The particular careers each Player finds interesting (this is the relevant part for your OP). If 2 players want to play an Ace then this is a good hint that the party needs access to multiple small ships and some targets to shoot at! But this is when you need to make sure the party is going to work together as a whole.

Talk about the Characteristics each PC will cover. In general in this system if you have a Characteristic that's 3 or more then any skill associated with it you will be quite good at even without training. For this reason try to build a party that covers each characteristic, even if not every skill is covered. If everyone ends up with 4 Agility then the campaign could end up quite boring, but if everyone has a chance to shine differently then a much more interesting story can be developed.

Each player should try to come up with a couple of NPC's (name, description and connection, no stats required) from their past to give the GM a helping hand, these should tie into them PC's Obligation/Duty/Morality in some way. This is so when those things trigger during play there is something for the GM to work with that's got more meaning to you since you actually created it.

Also a solid reason for the party to be together can help a bunch, even if it's just that they where hand picked by a Rebel Leader to be a Strike Team, or all have Debts to a Hutt, or all have family ties to a particular NPC, all came from the same planet now destroyed by the Empire, or even grew up together in a traveling circus!

There is plenty more but I think that should be enough to gat your group at least thinking about these things!