Hi.

We are starting a new group and I would love to play a young Hutt, out there to make some fortune in selling and buing illegal stuff.

First I thought of the Explorer Class, because of the Trader specialisation but then I read through the talents and found out that it is only all about the legal selling stuff.

Now I am not sure what Class/Spec combination might be right.

Probably one of the Smuggler but I am not sure what to think of these.

Do you have any suggestions for a character of that kind?

Thief maybe and dip into Charmer. Thief gets your buffs for illegal transactions and Charmer will cover legal ones. Functionally not everything you buy and sell will always be illegal, so being good at both is a good idea.

I could see either Scoundrel or Entrepreneur fitting the bill, and ultimately having both would work quite well. Cunning and Presence will be your primary characteristics, with either Willpower or Intelligence improved if possible, depending on the final character concept and demeanour.

If you want to look outside EotE then Diplomat: Agitator or Sentinel: Shadow could replace the Scoundrel in the build.

Enforcer gets a lot of talents that benefit streetwise - you could maybe cross that Trader or Entrepreneur?

Outside EotE I found the Diplomacy Quartermaster.

The talent trees are really frustrating, knowing that I have to buy a lot of stuff I don't need, just to get to the ones I really want.

I tried to build a Hutt one using the Explorer - Trader but it almost seems impossible to build, even though I added 10 Obligation for additional XP.

The most used Characteristics will be Int, Cun, and Pr but even when I raise only two of them by one I can only buy like two Skills and have zero Points left for Talents.

Is it always like that to build a character in this System? It is my first one and I feel frustrated, that the amount of stuff I can get almost feels like nothing.

Someone told me that raising the Characteristics is important, because you will not be able to change them a lot during play which is fine by me but spending all my XP on them feels strange.

I would love to hear your insights and helpful tips in building this character.

My advice is don't worry about anything other than characteristics to start with. Talents, skills, etc are what earned XP is for. Fresh out of the box PCs should have enough from creation to be able to do their jobs competently, if not amazingly.

You're meant to grow into the concept. Since there really is no penalty for not having a skill you can grow into what you need after you buy your traits up in the beginning. This system is designed with the long campaign in mind, thus characters may not have much in the way in skills and talents to start but they are expected and encouraged to get better later.

It's a mindset that takes a bit of getting used to.

Edit: Try to think of it in terms similar to watching Rick Hunter grow as a character in Robotech. When the show starts Rick is pretty much relying on raw talent. He's a good pilot and all but he can't do much. He still has enough raw talent though that he can operate a veritech(if not a bit badly). But as time progresses Rick grows into a total bad ass of a pilot and leader (likely Commodore Squad Leader/Ace Pilot). Characters in this game are Rick Hunter from the first few episodes of of Robotech. They are able to make due and succeed at the challenges that they are given but they don't start out as powerful as they'll eventually become.

Edit: Try to think of it in terms similar to watching Rick Hunter grow as a character in Robotech. When the show starts Rick is pretty much relying on raw talent. He's a good pilot and all but he can't do much. He still has enough raw talent though that he can operate a veritech(if not a bit badly). But as time progresses Rick grows into a total bad ass of a pilot and leader (likely Commodore Squad Leader/Ace Pilot). Characters in this game are Rick Hunter from the first few episodes of of Robotech. They are able to make due and succeed at the challenges that they are given but they don't start out as powerful as they'll eventually become.

Max Sterling must just have been an outlier on the good old bell curve.

Edit: Try to think of it in terms similar to watching Rick Hunter grow as a character in Robotech. When the show starts Rick is pretty much relying on raw talent. He's a good pilot and all but he can't do much. He still has enough raw talent though that he can operate a veritech(if not a bit badly). But as time progresses Rick grows into a total bad ass of a pilot and leader (likely Commodore Squad Leader/Ace Pilot). Characters in this game are Rick Hunter from the first few episodes of of Robotech. They are able to make due and succeed at the challenges that they are given but they don't start out as powerful as they'll eventually become.

Max Sterling must just have been an outlier on the good old bell curve.

Possibly. But one could also consider that Max was introduced later in the show and it's possible the GM gave Max enough xp to be on even footing with Rick as opposed as having Max start at just the beginner sheet and lag behind Rick on challenges. Though the extra xp doesn't seem to help Ben.

Edit: Try to think of it in terms similar to watching Rick Hunter grow as a character in Robotech. When the show starts Rick is pretty much relying on raw talent. He's a good pilot and all but he can't do much. He still has enough raw talent though that he can operate a veritech(if not a bit badly). But as time progresses Rick grows into a total bad ass of a pilot and leader (likely Commodore Squad Leader/Ace Pilot). Characters in this game are Rick Hunter from the first few episodes of of Robotech. They are able to make due and succeed at the challenges that they are given but they don't start out as powerful as they'll eventually become.

Max Sterling must just have been an outlier on the good old bell curve.

Possibly. But one could also consider that Max was introduced later in the show and it's possible the GM gave Max enough xp to be on even footing with Rick as opposed as having Max start at just the beginner sheet and lag behind Rick on challenges. Though the extra xp doesn't seem to help Ben.

In raw combat I always thought Max was the best - even when compared to the likes of Rick. I mean, Miriya singled him out for a reason...

Edit: Try to think of it in terms similar to watching Rick Hunter grow as a character in Robotech. When the show starts Rick is pretty much relying on raw talent. He's a good pilot and all but he can't do much. He still has enough raw talent though that he can operate a veritech(if not a bit badly). But as time progresses Rick grows into a total bad ass of a pilot and leader (likely Commodore Squad Leader/Ace Pilot). Characters in this game are Rick Hunter from the first few episodes of of Robotech. They are able to make due and succeed at the challenges that they are given but they don't start out as powerful as they'll eventually become.

Max Sterling must just have been an outlier on the good old bell curve.

Possibly. But one could also consider that Max was introduced later in the show and it's possible the GM gave Max enough xp to be on even footing with Rick as opposed as having Max start at just the beginner sheet and lag behind Rick on challenges. Though the extra xp doesn't seem to help Ben.

In raw combat I always thought Max was the best - even when compared to the likes of Rick. I mean, Miriya singled him out for a reason...

Max is better in raw combat. But Max also starts out better overall when we meet the character than Rick does. We get to see Rick be that rookie starter character. Max comes into the story at a point where the other characters have experience under their belt and thus we don't see his more rookie phase. But there is no doubt that Max was the better pilot overall. Rick was the better leader, but Max was the better pilot.