So, I just picked up Force and Destiny. I don't have any of the other games in the Star Wars line, this is my first. I also don't have any of the beginners boxes.

Just looking at character creation, I was left with a similar quandry that I always had with another FFG game, Anima. That is, how do you build an effective character? Or rather, a capable one?

I haven't seen a chart or anything representing what levels of skill and attributes mean. I realize it's super hard to improve attributes after play, so it seems like you should do that in char gen, but then will you have any skills?

I guess what I am looking for is general recommendations for how many of what things should characters spend their xp on? I realize that this varies with concept, but you know, in general.

I also noticed that 'Knight Level Play' was a bonus of 150 xp. But looking at the XP guidelines, that seems like only around 10 sessions of play on average. Is a 150 xp a lot?

Finally, has anyone played this system for a long time and if so, how do high 'level' characters shake out? Does the system break down when you play a character with 300+ xp under their belt? Or is the math good?

So, I just picked up Force and Destiny. I don't have any of the other games in the Star Wars line, this is my first. I also don't have any of the beginners boxes.

Just looking at character creation, I was left with a similar quandry that I always had with another FFG game, Anima. That is, how do you build an effective character? Or rather, a capable one?

I haven't seen a chart or anything representing what levels of skill and attributes mean. I realize it's super hard to improve attributes after play, so it seems like you should do that in char gen, but then will you have any skills?

I guess what I am looking for is general recommendations for how many of what things should characters spend their xp on? I realize that this varies with concept, but you know, in general.

I haven't played a game yet, but I've built a character and got a basic understanding of building a dice pool (as these concepts are completely foreign to me, coming from a D&D/Alternity background).

Basically, the attribute and skill numbers are related to building that dice pool. You will always compare the attribute score with the skill score. Whichever number is higher, is the number of ability dice you will be rolling. The extra bit...the smaller number tells you how many of your dice you get to 'upgrade' to proficiency dice.

Knowing this, I am guessing the game would like you to focus on raising your attribute scores to about what you want them throughout the life of your character at creation. You will only have very limited options of raising these scores during play. Skills, on the other hand, are a different story. They are the things you will be getting better at as you do them. Spend more time slicing, and you should be raising your computers skill. Eventually, your computers skill will surpass your 'intelligence' score (I think that's the correct linkage) and you'll start rolling more dice with more proficiency upgrades.

That's the best 'nutshell' I can provide as a yet-to-play player who is just getting into the game. I'm sure more experienced players will give better answers.

As for the last two parts about XP and high level characters, I will let others field those questions.

You should spend most of your starting XP on increasing characteristics, since that's not something you can ever do again once play begins. My personal preference is to go for several characteristics at about 3, giving you a nice well-rounded character, but some prefer to specialize harder. Only spend starting XP on skills and talents if you have "leftovers" that aren't enough to increase any characteristics anyway.

And no, 150 XP isn't very much. "Knight level" is just a phrase used to describe a game where the GM lets the players start with a little more XP under their belts, making them more capable. It's a little like having a D&D/Pathfinder group start at level 2 or 3 instead of level 1.

I have a group in Edge of the Empire where they're currently at around 800 XP each, and the system isn't showing any signs of strain yet. It confers a greater responsibility on the GM to adjust the relative power of NPCs, since there's no fixed system in place for designing "level-appropriate" encounters, but the system is eminently suited to coping with it.

Krieger22 has got it. The only way to increase characteristics after character creation is through the Dedication talent at the bottom of most Talent trees (besides Seer and Sage, but they get 2 instances of Force Rating talent). So an effective character would do well to focus their starting XP on that. I personally like to have as many 3s as possible in my characteristic spread. It's a good foundation for a well rounded and effective character. However, if you have a specific role you're wanting to fulfill, I fully recommend having a 4 in your primary characteristic and one or two 3s (depending on species and XP) in your secondary characteristic(s).

For instance if you wanted to play a Warrior: Starfighter Ace that focuses on piloting. You should spend the 70XP (or 40 if you are starting with a species that already has a 3 in agility) to raise your agility to 4. Next a Starfighter Ace has a few talents that rely on Mechanics and Astrogation. Both use the Intellect characterstic. So spend 30XP to raise your Int from a 2 to a 3 and you already have the foundation for an effective and capable Starfighter Ace. After that, take the rest of your XP and put some ranks in skills or start down the talent tree depending on if you want throw down more yellow dice (skills) or want to do some interesting thing while piloting (talents). Both can be invested in after character creation when your GM awards additional XP so don't feel too bad if you don't get everything you want right away.

On the math side of it, IMO it's wise to buy important attributes up to 3, it's alright to buy attributes up to 4, and it's damned foolish to buy them to 5. Why? because it takes 25 xp to buy dedication to move an attribute from 4 to 5, and 50 xp to move an attribute from 4 to 5 at creation. That's just bad math. Yeah, you have to *reach* the bottom level of the tree to get dedication, but there's a lot of good stuff on the way down.

If you're 'power gaming' you'll almost certainly be buying Agi to 4. Because that's what basically every combat skill uses.

Beyond that, I think it depends on whether or not you like building "broad" or "deep" characters. I think this system supports broad character construction (pretty good at a variety of things) way better than almost any other system I've seen. This system also supports creative/narrative play better than most other systems, which minimizes the need for uber-specialization seen in products, published by seaside dwelling magicians.

But it's still really dependent on your GM, too. If all they're doing is hurling combat encounters at you, then it shouldn't be surprising that the gun-monkey is going to fare better than any other build.

I don't have any experience with higher XP levels, so I can't comment on that.

seaside dwelling magicians

Sublime.

seaside dwelling magicians

Sublime.

Instant classic quote, should go in their Signature.

Two other notes:

I haven't seen a chart or anything representing what levels of skill and attributes mean.

The whole concept of "Knight level play" was primarily a concession for the community members that were absolutely sh*tting themselves when they found out that the RAW didn't guarantee force-users a glowstick at character creation. Now the RAW exist to support this option, and no-one needs a change of pants.

Frankly, I think it's an excellent solution because it should satisfy all parties: There are official rules to use if you feel the characters need 'sabers , and the default remains the same power level as previously published games.

P.S. I'm glad my wit can be appreciated in this forum Those response posts srsly made my day.

The commonly held practice is to spend as much of your experience on Attributes as possible, then use whatever is left on talents or skills. A starting level character built this way can be reasonably capable in their area of expertise, and usually at least fake it elsewhere.

"Knight Level Play" is really just giving the characters an experience bonus. As you guessed, it's about a 10 session bonus on average. I usually award 15 points for an average game. Twenty for a longer or exceptional game, ten for a shorter session.

Knight level play just gets you up to the point where you have enough exp to buy a couple force powers, or really dig into a talent tree or two so you feel a bit more jedilike. You're still not particularly powerful, but it gives you a bit of a boost. Jedi have so many places to put experience points that I'm up to abou 600 xp on my sage and I still only feel like I'm finally just coming into my power.

As to the "Well, you wont have skills, right?" concern - skills come easy. From 0 to 1 is five points, from 1 to 2 is ten (assuming you keep it in your career pool). Assuming you get 20 experiance a session, you'll be throwing yellows in no time. Plus you're forgetting the starting skills you get - 2 freebies if you are human, 3 for the career and two for your specialization. That's a pretty healthy spread of yellows.

So yeah, just suck it up and buy your attributes. You'll thank us in the long run.

I agree with the general consensus. There is a sound advantage to buying up at least one if not two characteristics with your starting XP, but then again, any time there has ever been a note that says "you can only buy this now" that is usually a big clue to me that you should load up on as much of it as you can afford. I also find it helpful when the group of players builds characters with being a team in mind. In my current game, we have one player who is the technician, one who specializes in being the group's face, the sneaky/stabby expert, and a doctor. While but the doctor and the tech are high Int characters, they have very little skill overlap. The tech leans towards "applied" Int skills, and the doctor leans a little more towards the education and xenology side of things (with the obvious exception being her medical skill). This allows all the players to have some place they get to shine in, and when they work together makes them a pretty fearsome force to be reckoned with.

Thanks to the low XP cost of career skills, you can start expanding your character's repertoire pretty significantly after even one session. Just one or two yellows can give you some amazing results when you are rolling them against two or three purples. With my (admitedly limited) experience in this system, once you get to about two ranks in what you consider your character's "core" skills, everything else is gravy and fun toys! Work through your talent specs, pick up some fun force powers, maybe even pick up a new spec tree, or anything else that tickles your fancy.

Since you were looking for some specific recommendations, I would consider the first 300 XP to be building your character's foundation. Shoot for about 2 ranks in skills you plan on using often and talents that either give you benefits to those skills or reduce setbacks or difficulties related to those skills. That gives you a solid core with some nice options for how to deal with situations related to your main focus. The next 300 let you round out the base to give you plenty of situational flexibility, or perhaps expand into a second core function. Aim for some of the fun signature talents, or work your way through some of the control upgrades on your force power. Alternately, diversify yourself with a few more basic force powers.

Hope this helps!

Alternately, diversify yourself with a few more basic force powers.

On this note, it seems a lot of the less flashy force powers are overlooked. But if you only have one die to work with, you can get a lot of use out of powers like Sense and Enhance. Adding a Force die to skill checks can be extremely useful, as can committing to upgrade opponent difficulties.

Foresee.

Adding FD to the whole group's Initiative and granting 2 defense the first round of combat seems quite imba to me.

The basic Influence power is a MONSTER of a bargain, IMHO. In an encounter I had a player use it to set up some preemptive defense against the fear checks they knew were coming. Misdirect and Seek also have some amazing utility for the investment of very little XP.

Flashy? Not even a little, but lots of good at getting into and maybe out of all sorts of trouble.