Actually, while I do want some social stuff, we have a guy that is going to be the completely dedicated face of the group. I somehow think he will be taking the cake on about everything. Leadership might be one of the few he doesn't touch on but I wouldn't bet on it. We seem to be lacking sneakiness and anything tech that a Engineer/Mechanic wouldn't focus on.

I do like the demolitionist to at least get me some of the skills in class. I will have to consider that. The skill thing has been bothering me because there isn't a single class skill that supports my idea except where it makes me the gruff combat guy that no one would expect.

Smuggler is of course possible but we already have two of them in party.

And on top of this and I have no idea how I am going to build a good heavy that is still set up to eventually take up this spymaster roll. I seem to need a 3 in brawn and agility both since I will be using the big guns (know Burly will help some but it seems you need a 3 in brawn and 2 ranks in burly or a 4 and a 1 just to use anything large to begin with. Maybe I missed something.) That leaves me with precious little exp to put in other needed stats or to buy some skills that actually make me more than just an armed mule.

You could mount a grenade launcher on a regular rifle and with the right grenades not worry about having to lug around some auto fire cannon. Plus not every mission will be conducive to carrying heavy assault weapons. There are auto fire pistols and a couple carbines as well. None of that requires you to be a beefcake.

Actually, while I do want some social stuff, we have a guy that is going to be the completely dedicated face of the group. I somehow think he will be taking the cake on about everything. Leadership might be one of the few he doesn't touch on but I wouldn't bet on it. We seem to be lacking sneakiness and anything tech that a Engineer/Mechanic wouldn't focus on.

I do like the demolitionist to at least get me some of the skills in class. I will have to consider that. The skill thing has been bothering me because there isn't a single class skill that supports my idea except where it makes me the gruff combat guy that no one would expect.

Smuggler is of course possible but we already have two of them in party.

And on top of this and I have no idea how I am going to build a good heavy that is still set up to eventually take up this spymaster roll. I seem to need a 3 in brawn and agility both since I will be using the big guns (know Burly will help some but it seems you need a 3 in brawn and 2 ranks in burly or a 4 and a 1 just to use anything large to begin with. Maybe I missed something.) That leaves me with precious little exp to put in other needed stats or to buy some skills that actually make me more than just an armed mule.

Weapon harness and weapon sling also reduce Cumbersome (by 2 and 1, respectively). We currently have a 2 Brawn party member using a Light Repeating Blaster without a problem due to those attachments.

I'm desperately hoping that FFG create a SpyMaster specialisation for AoR with either the Spy of Commander career books, but that could be 2 years away

In the meantime how about a Human Sentinel Shadow from FaD? 3, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2 for stats. Pick up a rank in some combat skill with the human racial trait. Then focus on the Enhance and the force powers that give you knowledge of the world around you, Seek, Foresee, Sense.

Play it like your the guy who always knows what's going on, always knows where and how to get things, yet no one ever remembers telling you the info you have.

I would suggest going for ranged light, pick up Gunslinger down the track if you want to Kick butt. But to keep your appearances up I can understand you picking up the Bounty Hunter Assasin. I think those 2 would work the best with the Shadow in terms of theme, flavour and mechanics. In fact I want to play a Shadow Assasin now, that's a cool combo!

Edit: Actually if you don't care about all the cool talents in the Assasin tree, the Shadow tree has the Well Rounded Tallent that would let you pick up Ranged Heavy as a career skill. Of course if you did get Assasin then you could use Well Rounded to pick up Gunnery to be the real Big Gun Beefcake!

Smuggler is of course possible but we already have two of them in party.

I'm not sure why this matters. All it means is the smuggler (and colonist for that matter) are highly flexible. If the careers start with different specs, they will have a very different play style and flavour. And even if they start with the same specs, different characteristic distribution and skill purchases will differentiate them very quickly.

How to make an interesting character

I'm desperately hoping that FFG create a SpyMaster specialisation for AoR with either the Spy of Commander career books, but that could be 2 years away

In the meantime how about a Human Sentinel Shadow from FaD? 3, 3, 2, 3, 3, 2 for stats. Pick up a rank in some combat skill with the human racial trait. Then focus on the Enhance and the force powers that give you knowledge of the world around you, Seek, Foresee, Sense.

Play it like your the guy who always knows what's going on, always knows where and how to get things, yet no one ever remembers telling you the info you have.

I would suggest going for ranged light, pick up Gunslinger down the track if you want to Kick butt. But to keep your appearances up I can understand you picking up the Bounty Hunter Assasin. I think those 2 would work the best with the Shadow in terms of theme, flavour and mechanics. In fact I want to play a Shadow Assasin now, that's a cool combo!

Edit: Actually if you don't care about all the cool talents in the Assasin tree, the Shadow tree has the Well Rounded Tallent that would let you pick up Ranged Heavy as a career skill. Of course if you did get Assasin then you could use Well Rounded to pick up Gunnery to be the real Big Gun Beefcake!

I just read it for the first time and that is a pretty close to perfect blend of what I wanted to do if I add in a tough type like commando or something. Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to do Jedi in this campaign. I might be able to convince him to scale something back, but I doubt it. It really do like the idea though.

I was however also looking at Commander/Tactician. It isn't a naturally hard hitting class like Heavy, but it has some good party buffing and has a broad skill base of things that could be useful for my concept.

I managed to make a Klatooinian with 4 agi/int that later went into Politico. He was the gunner of the group, the thinker/planner of the group and the talker of the group (took me nearly 1000xp to get there, but he did it). I started as an Ace/Gunner and worked from there. If you want to do the same thing with a Hired Gun/Heavy, it wouldn't be very hard. Keep in mind that you don't really need more than a 2 Brawn. Keep your powder dry and spend it on Int/Agi for autofire weapons and computers/mechanics/knowledge.

How to make an interesting character

I assume I am being obtuse and missing a joke or something. The link just sends me to this thread again.

I managed to make a Klatooinian with 4 agi/int that later went into Politico. He was the gunner of the group, the thinker/planner of the group and the talker of the group (took me nearly 1000xp to get there, but he did it). I started as an Ace/Gunner and worked from there. If you want to do the same thing with a Hired Gun/Heavy, it wouldn't be very hard. Keep in mind that you don't really need more than a 2 Brawn. Keep your powder dry and spend it on Int/Agi for autofire weapons and computers/mechanics/knowledge.

There is some irony here, since Klatoonian was a race that appealed to me. The whole wanting to break away from the slavery of the Hutts. Same with the Nikto actually.

Ok then, for realsies: How to make an interesting character

Smuggler is of course possible but we already have two of them in party.

I'm not sure why this matters. All it means is the smuggler (and colonist for that matter) are highly flexible. If the careers start with different specs, they will have a very different play style and flavour. And even if they start with the same specs, different characteristic distribution and skill purchases will differentiate them very quickly.

I suppose it doesn't matter, I just didn't want to be a dual pistol guy (more of a single pistol guy), those I suppose you don't HAVE to use two pistols as a gunslinger.

Spy Infiltrator gets a lot of cool sneaky skills that could combine with Assasin or Tactician.

On the Shadow Assasin idea you could start with Assasin, then pick up Shadow. You won't have a FR, so can't use the most thematic talents but there is still a lot to use. If you're GM later lets you become Force Sensitive take FS Emergent then the FR Tallents to have a FR of 3

Spy Infiltrator gets a lot of cool sneaky skills that could combine with Assasin or Tactician.

On the Shadow Assasin idea you could start with Assasin, then pick up Shadow. You won't have a FR, so can't use the most thematic talents but there is still a lot to use. If you're GM later lets you become Force Sensitive take FS Emergent then the FR Tallents to have a FR of 3

Yeah, he said I couldn't do any of the classes in FaD. Oh well.

Smuggler is of course possible but we already have two of them in party.

I'm not sure why this matters. All it means is the smuggler (and colonist for that matter) are highly flexible. If the careers start with different specs, they will have a very different play style and flavour. And even if they start with the same specs, different characteristic distribution and skill purchases will differentiate them very quickly.

I suppose it doesn't matter, I just didn't want to be a dual pistol guy (more of a single pistol guy), those I suppose you don't HAVE to use two pistols as a gunslinger.

'Call em' is more about trick shots with Aim and 'Sorry about the mess' is the one shot one kill Talent, pair that up with an H7 and you'd be a crit machine. Gunslinger can go either way in regards to one or two pistols imo.

I apologize in advance for the long post. Here's my advice, TLDR version: go bounty hunter (I admit I am partial to them, and thus am biased). They're excellent in combat and start with the piloting skills. You just need to pick up gunnery from somewhere to be a competent pilot. Then you're free to pick other specs that suit your concept.

To go into details, pick a race that lets you get four '3's in characteristics. Put a 3 in Brawn and Agility and the others however you want. Start with either gadgeteer or assassin. (You can pick up the other one later). Go straight down to dedication, then pick up whatever you want that you missed along the way. Then hop on over over to either scholar (for knowledge skills and talents)) or performer (for social skills and talents). If scholar work on the right side of the tree. I recommend picking up gunnery and negotiation as your skills for Well-Rounded. Once you have both of those, I would either go back for the other bounty hunter spec or some kind of piloting spec.

I don't recommend getting a light or heavy repeating blaster. A modded heavy blaster rifle can do almost as much damage is is far less cumbersome.

A couple other comments: unlike other RPGs, I've found that it detracts from game experience to have a face that does all the talking. Everyone should participate, and whoever is talking when the roll is called for should make the roll. This way people don't min-max too much. This doesn't mean a face is a bad thing to have. It just means they shouldn't be the only one talking. If they're the only one making social skill checks, something is wrong.

You commented you didn't like the idea of coercion because it seemed too "dark." Coercion is intimidation and threats. It doesn't have to actually involve hurting anyone. Simply making a gesture to indicate you're armed could be coercion.

The only reason I'm suggesting you go with a combat role at all is that it is related to your concept (being the guy that nobody expects) and because I think it's possible to still pull off your concept, to some degree or another. If it wasn't for that, I'd be suggesting a chat with your fellow players and GM about expectations. Edge doesn't require a combat monster to be a fun game. Edge can be a fun game with all combat monsters. The GM should tailor encounters to the group (It actually can be harder with a combat monster in an other-wise squishy group).

I appreciate the suggestion Kirdan. It is worth another run through my head.