What would the Base Stock Astromech profession be?

Mechanic?

For a PC? Mechanic, Pilot, and Rigger cover it closest, but even Fringer, Hotshot or Squadron Leader have their uses.

If it's an NPC then they don't have Careers or Specialisations so anything the GM thinks will be important for the NPC (The Ace supplement for AoR actually has quite a lot of NPC droid stats in it if you need one, including R2 series Astromecs.

Edit: my favourite is the Astromec Rigger by the way, I can imagine a super intelligent R2 constantly tinkering with the X-Wing to get the most out of it for the Hotshot (or Force Sensitive Starfighter Pilot!)

I only have the EOTE full edition and the AOR beta books.

Along with the FLy casual smuggler book.

And I like to "Make" special Named NPCs to interact and torment my players with. SO I build them the same way a Character is built.

But I figure all Astromechs should come with certain Base skills considering what they are supposed to be.

Astromech stats are on PG 410 of the core book. It's already a rival level character, so you're good to go. If you want to make the character stand out, instead of spending time making a PC character, just take the existing NPC stats, and add a talent, skill, ability, or gear needed to fit the character and encounter design. It's faster, easier, and you get a statblock that's short and clean, so you're less likely to forget a special ability or talent.

NPCs aren't built like PCs. You give them whatever stats you feel are appropriate. No XP cost, no Talent Trees to connect the dots with.

For a PC? Mechanic, Pilot, and Rigger cover it closest, but even Fringer, Hotshot or Squadron Leader have their uses.

If it's an NPC then they don't have Careers or Specialisations so anything the GM thinks will be important for the NPC (The Ace supplement for AoR actually has quite a lot of NPC droid stats in it if you need one, including R2 series Astromecs.

Edit: my favourite is the Astromec Rigger by the way, I can imagine a super intelligent R2 constantly tinkering with the X-Wing to get the most out of it for the Hotshot (or Force Sensitive Starfighter Pilot!)

I did the Rigger astromech... it was absolutely an awesome combo.

Also more than likely when the Tech Book comes out, it will hopefully have Upgrade options for NPC Droids!

NPCs aren't built like PCs. You give them whatever stats you feel are appropriate. No XP cost, no Talent Trees to connect the dots with.

That said, they certainly can be made as PCs and played as NPCs without any problems (it just takes more effort to create them that way).

NPCs aren't built like PCs. You give them whatever stats you feel are appropriate. No XP cost, no Talent Trees to connect the dots with.

That said, they certainly can be made as PCs and played as NPCs without any problems (it just takes more effort to create them that way).

Not as much Trouble as One might THink with Oggdude's Character Generator.

The generator is amazing, but why get all the in between talents, just get the thematic ones from 5 different specialisations

because in many ways... doing it this way also helps me judge the "power" of Npcs in comparison to Pcs on an experience basis for challenge.

Fair enough, I can see how that would work. I just eyeball it! They usually have to be more powerful than PC's IMHO due to it being 1+minions vs a party of 5. I have been playing/GMing this system for 2 years, and FFG Warhammer Fantasy RPG for 18 months before that, so I'm getting good at making it up on the fly.

Thanks for the Advice.

I have done it that way with some Npcs in many game systems.

But in the end I enjoy making characters and I like being able to say that the character wasn't just pumped up by Fiat but made the same way the players were.

Been a Gm now for 30+ years..

Though I am new to FFG, I have Played and GM'd Many systems.

My Primary systems are a Bit more crunchy than this.. but I have come to enjoy the Mix of simplicity AND Crunch that FFG brought to this Genre.

I hear you there. My favourite pastime is making 300-600xp characters that I'll never get to play, back story and all!

hehehe... I just use them as NPcs.. that way I get to play them occasionally lol

I've actually just created a Astromech (think Geonosis battle droid series from episods 1-3) Mercenary Soldier with future plans on dipping into one of the Commander trees. The cool thing about being a droid is that you don't experience emotions and you're immune to mind-altering Force powers. Two characteristics ideal for a leadership/command roles.