One of my players really wants me to make a specialization that is equivalent to a lightsaber form, but for unarmed Combat instead. Before anyone says why. I like creating specialization and when a player wants somethING I work on it for them.

Any thoughts or ideas for a spec that is very similiar to lightsaber forms but only for unarmed

The Guardian splatbook that's been announced (Keeping the peace) has an unarmed combat style in it, based on the old Wardens of the Sky tradition. (simply called Wardens in the book)

Don't know if I'm gonna she'll out for that book just yet. Was thinking of letting use Ataru and let him use the lightsaber talents with unarmed. However they only work on unarmed and he loses use wit a saber with them.

Why not use the marauder career and the rest will be fluff?

The description of the career mention concepts such as coming from a low tech world where blasters(packs) werent available to the inhabitants or from a culture where melee combat is considered honorable and traditional. That's all fluff really.

Marauder+Doctor=Killing Machine. Though it's not really a Force thing, yeah.

The aggressor works pretty well unarmed.

Aggressor+Marauder combo will probably work very well for an Brawl-based combative Force user. Just be sure to add in the Enhance power to enable you to roll your Force dice as part of the Brawl combat check, and then the Control Upgrade to increase your Brawn once you've reached Force Rating 2. Throw in a pair of brass knuckles so that the target is disoriented for multiple rounds to maximize the Aggressor's Prey on the Weak talent.

He wants force and not fluff. So will go with Ataru since it is very fitting. I will let saber swarm and hawk bat swoop be used with unarmed with the price it can never be used with a lightsaber. Will still have him get the rest since he is being trained to use a saber, but chooses to only use it for rare cases

He wants force and not fluff. So will go with Ataru since it is very fitting. I will let saber swarm and hawk bat swoop be used with unarmed with the price it can never be used with a lightsaber. Will still have him get the rest since he is being trained to use a saber, but chooses to only use it for rare cases

Frankly, you're creating work for yourself that's really not needed. A perfectly viable combination within the rules has been presented, namely start with Warrior/Aggressor, pick up Marauder from EotE as a secondary spec for the extra beat-down ability (Feral Strength for raw damage, Frenzied Attack for upgrades to Brawl checks, Lethal Blows for nastier crits as well as ranks in Toughness and Enduring to make the character a lot tougher to take down. And by starting with Warrior/Aggressor, the PC is a Force user and can access the Enhance power. It will take time to build up, but that's true of pretty much any character, especially a Force user given how many different things they have to spend their hard-earned XP on.

Ataru Striker is a glass cannon, being extremely heavy on strain for its defensive abilities, and Quick Strike is only useful in the opening round and even then only if you go first.

Point being, there's no reason to re-invent the wheel just because you don't like the way the tread looks on the current one.

Marauder+Doctor=Killing Machine. Though it's not really a Force thing, yeah.

Marauder +Doctor+Enhance.

Right hand side of aggressor (if they don't want the fear stuff they don't have to take it)

Any of marauder

Use basic enhance and the force leap control upgrade for the jumping stuff (can leap from medium to engaged, attack, then leap back to medium in a single round when it's upgraded and have FR2)

Use enhance to also boost the brawl skill and brawn characteristic.

Brawl monster...

Then if it's a looooong campaign pick up Doctor and ranks in medicine to use pressure point and anatomy lessons to absolutely own hand2hand combat

Problem with using the Lightsaber specalizations for unarmed combat is that they are designed for lightsabers. Notice the dearth of damage-increasing talents, and the disparity between your punching damage and your lightsaber damage (Breach included). Without a seriously beefy character and a seriously hard-hitting weapon, or a skilled Doctor with several ranks in the Medicine skill, there's no way that unarmed combat can approach even a basic lightsaber for damage. You might see some dissatisfying results as you land all your punches but fail to do any damage or activate critical injuries.

Aye to me, Brawl is a fairly underwhelming skill that is largely developed to use in situations where weapons are not appropriate. It's main advantage is that the character can get around without carrying any weapons too overt and indeed is extremely proficient at subduing and disarming individuals, but often that mainly means that as soon as you get your hands on a blaster or vibro weapon, you should start using it. Though it's possible to be really dangerous with weapons like Vamblades, Blast Knuckles and various stun gauntlets that can be fitted to shoulders, knees e.c.t.

With the Iron Talisman charm, it's fully possible to make a character viable, if not exceptional in such circumstances. Basically while Monks are masters at unarmed combat, they also are trained in a wide variety of weapons which they are expected to use in self defence. Take inspiration from that. In movies in which everyone is armed, marital arts is interweave with gun and sword play, if this guy disarms an inquisitor the first thing he should do is to turn his blade back on him.

Though first of all, I would make something apparent to the player; brawn is your bread and butter. If you don't have at least 4 in it by the time you finish character creation, more so at knight level then standard, then fisticuffs is only a last resort. I played a trandosian with a brawn of 3 with a super modded vibrosword and his performance is fairly underwhelming because he could never roll enough success or advantage to reliably use the weapons properties. Unlike agility the characters damage, and ability to take damage keys of this. Dispel any illusions of these characters being muscle bound titans; brawn isn't just strength but it's rounded physical conditioning and the stamina to dodge and weave blaster bolts. It needs to be four.

To me, the only lightsaber form you should consider is Shi-Cho Knight. It comes with a load of parry, is focused around brawn (which is the characters bread and butter. If your not doing this, then they should either use a lightsaber or accept it as causal self defence). Unlike most lightsaber forms it focuses on physical conditioning, gifts the user with a bunch of skills a unarmed Jedi would want. Parry, a smattering of defensive training, second wind. Blademaster, while doesn't strictly assist brawl, boosts Melee and lightsaber play significantly and it also serves to make turning your foes weapon against them a more satisfying experience. The S Sweep is the reason you really want this though, being able to spread the love is incredible for any melee combatant. Plus it serves the needs of your player without having to really change the rules dramatically.

From there? There are multiple ways you can go. Maraulder/Doctor is the obvious cheese. You get strong, you break faces, but you don't get stronger in the force by doing that.

Alternative trees such as Seer can boost your Iron Talsman perk and give the character a gigantic host of abilities that is generally really useful. Rapid reactions,Toughness, Sense Advantage, Forewarning, two force ratings and the Force is my ally is a fantastic array of abilities that, while it doesn't make sheer strength any better allows the character to be able to respond to threats effectively while allowing them to remove mitigating circumstances. The latter most skill especially allows the force user to actually work in skills that would usually consume an action, so using move object to yank a unattended item to hand, throw someone through a window (HOW GRIMDARK) using a application of sense to make a very quick judgement on what is going on. Of course, using Seer also requires force development, but if that character is looking to roleplay a force user; that should be his or her objective anyway.

It also allows the character to expand tramendously on his force abilties so he can commit more dice down. You don't need me to tell you that having the left side of the sense tree is the most incredible use of 50 points in any Jedi's list. Being able to have two ranks of any combat skill and upgrade any two defence checks twice is really sweet. I've owed more to the despairs that have come up then any ranks in parry and it allows the character to have a realistic chance of not being hit if you manage to pick up ranks in dodge or defensive fighting along the way. Other force powers? Depends what they want. Enhance is really good for force jumping, it really depends on what they want to do with their concept aside from hitting people in the face.

What weapon? Yes, even as a monk you need a weapon because as I said before, if a character can be armed, it's better to be armed because they are more efficient at inflicting damage. Again, personal preference since there's a lot of options. Electrostaffs, force pikes, vibroswords and axes are all great weapons and vibroknives are good for keeping a low profile. With monoedges you can crit with them and use perice to mitigate armour. Marital purists could get away with stun gloves, Vamblades are a sweet flexi-option. If that character is really commiting to dealing damages with fists, Blast Knuckles are the only choice. It gets better if you have an artisan in the group, since they can grant hard points to add weighted head onto it which, considering weighted head does state you can added them to gauntlets and brass knuckles should be fine. 6+ damage with peirce generated from the iron talesman is probably the best result you can hope for in a pure brawl weapon.

Don't get me wrong most of the above would probably be better with a lightsaber, but it's not unworkable either and has the advantage of a lower profile and that satisfaction of always being armed, even when unarmed.

Why not use the marauder career and the rest will be fluff?

The description of the career mention concepts such as coming from a low tech world where blasters(packs) werent available to the inhabitants or from a culture where melee combat is considered honorable and traditional. That's all fluff really.

This. Any F&D career plus a Marauder spec with some Enhance power and describe it any way you want.

Marauder+Doctor=Killing Machine. Though it's not really a Force thing, yeah.

Is doctor with marauder mainly because of the talent that gives strain damage equal to medecine? Or is there more that I'm missing with that tree?

Thanks for all ideas. Player comes from loving saga for all of unarmed choices

Ataru is supposed to be both an unarmed and lightsaber combat style. Something they neglected in FFG.

Ataru is supposed to be both an unarmed and lightsaber combat style. Something they neglected in FFG.

The Shii-Cho Form also incorporates blast-deflect training, yet Shii-Cho Knight has no ranks in Reflect.

It ultimately boils down to a design choice on FFG's part, and not all of their design choices are going to sit well with everyone.

Ataru is supposed to be both an unarmed and lightsaber combat style. Something they neglected in FFG.

There are plenty of talents in the Ataru Striker talent tree that would suit the consummate martial artist, not just lightsaber combatants.

Enforcer allows for dmg equal to streetwise ranks for a Destiny point spend. Couple that with vibroknuckles and the precision strike talent from the warden tree qlong with enhance brawl and FR2.

Basically use the advantage from the enhance force check to trigger a crit and if the crit isnt good enough, the pay the 1 strain to take an easy result. From the easy crit range choose the result to flip a Destiny Point then use it to boost the dmg by the amount of streetwise ranks.

Given that enforcer/warden has the following as well

Loom - auto advantage on your allies social check equal to ranks in coercion

Talk the Talk - switch a knowledge check for streetwise or know (underworld) check for a destiny point

Walk the Walk - the above mentioned streetwise dmg boost on brawl checks for a DP spend

Baleful gaze - increase the difficulty of an opposing combat check from up to medium range by Coercion ranks also for a dp spend.

Precision strike-not happy with your crit result pay 1 strain to turn it into either an auto stagger on your oppoent or if you are short of Destiny Points ro fuel the above tqlents then use it to flip a dark to a light.

So a Warden / Enforcer with reasonable ranks in both coercion /streerwise and the talents above (only Talk the Talk and Baleful Gaze are rank 4) coupled with enhance brawl, and you have a good unarmed fighter that is aslo good st coercion social checks and helping your allies by giving auto advantage in support and also being able to be bad ass with knowledge as long as you have a DP to spend. Makes for a very versatile character whike focusing on only a few skills.

It can be viable, like the above poster said, you really need a high Brawn to make it work.

Guardian/Armorer works great for a Brawn build with a Lightsaber at least. Can probably be decent at fisticuffs. Having great armor is going to be important for this character.

Make sure to scour the books for some good brawl weapons and augments, such as the +1 Brawn augment for armor. Vibro knuckles would probably work out well, and Trandoshan lines up if you're going for min/max. Though Nautolan starts with a rank in Athletics and has enough xp that you don't have to have a dump stat.

Personally I would try to start with Brawn 5. Extra wounds, soak, and attack dice. Each group should really have a character with decent brawn.

In the game I play in, my Nautolan Armorer has 5 brawn, and has spent 70 xp between Mechanics and talents for boost dice on crafting. Being good at athletics, resilience, and mechanics makes me an asset to the group outside of combat, and the high soak (currently 8) makes me essential during combat!

Also, I've yet to use a lightsaber in combat, we're playing in an Edge setting, so I've been swinging a Vibroaxe to keep a low profile. If I'd been a typical intellect build Guardian, that would have not been viable.