What action does protect take when activating it?

What kind of action does the control upgrade defense/strain cost?

Also based on duration being an upgrade for all attacks does it mean normally protect can only be used per one attack per round?

Like any other Force power that doesn't specifically say otherwise, setting up Protect is the character's Action for that round. And yeah, it'd only be good against one attack per round without the Duration Upgrade.

Assume if it doesn't state specifically its (one action) , you can find this in actions section of Force and Destiny its really small like one sentence haha. When you activate the power you basically build it how you want based on what you have purchased access to upgrades wise, but you still must be able to pay for the power and upgrades depending on if they require pips or committing dice. So unless stated other wise placing upgrades on the power while activating it should take place as part of the activating action.

So there is no way to use protect while still performing another action other than a move action?

Well basically but some force powers and talents allow you to downgrade some actions into Maneuvers, so theoretically you can use a force power as a maneuver, and still get your action. You can also strain to get two total maneuvers a turn. I believe somewhere in the rules though you cant ever benefit from more than two maneuvers a turn. So basically at best you can pull off one action, two maneuvers , and as many incidentals as your GM will allow.

also it suggests that the GM can and may reward additional maneuvers out of turn if he sees fit , so really its all up to the GM and the narrative.

Here is a quick example

Your ally is hurt above you on a ridge after taking a blaster to the side. You can use Enhance to force jump and land beside your ally. With the right upgrades you may turn it into a maneuver instead of a action. Then as your action use Heal/harm , to heal your fellow ally. You could even strain to move him to cover < this part may be an action or a maneuver depending on the GM. But yeah hope this example helps.

So there is no way to use protect while still performing another action other than a move action?

There's a Control Upgrade at the bottom of the power tree to allow a Light Side Force user to flip a Destiny Point and use Protect as an incidental, but this is limited to once per turn. But if you've got the Duration Upgrade and don't use dark side pips to generate Force points, then the Duration Upgrade triggers and the "reaction" of using Protect lasts until the start of the Force user's next turn.

Normally Activating (using) a force power is an action. If no skill check is mentioned in the basic power (or a particular upgrade your attempting to activate) then you just roll your available force dice and decided how your using the pips you have rolled. Then you describe the cool $h1t you just did.

Some Force Powers have a control upgrade (as Donovan pointed out) that allows you to use the force power as a Maneuver, or in Battle Meditation as an incidental. Enhance for example has a final control upgrade for the Force Leap section that allows the user to Force Leap as a Maneuver.

The only other way to use a Force Power as a Maneuver is with a certain talent "The Force is My Ally" from the Sage and Seer specialisations.

My personal opinion is if there is a Tallent that "breaks" the normal rules then for cinematic moments a character without that talent can use it, but for a much higher cost, usually flipping a DP and a strain cost. But it's only when a big moment happens in the story, and not very often.

I'm happy with Protect taking an action to put up a shield: it fits the source fiction. I'm less happy with Protect taking an action to renew every turn, as it means the Protecting character can't do anything else if they want to maintain a shield. That's just really dull for that player. Instead, how about someone using Protect must take an action to put up a shield, and can then commit the same number of Force dice to maintain it, allowing them to perform other actions.

Depending on how you feel, there may also be another Control talent on the Protect tree to allow the user to move the shield once its created.

Well, also remember that combat rounds on average take about a minute (this is the suggestion for "structured play" in each of the core rulebooks), so that "one" usage of Protect could in the narrative actually be several "uses" against a volley of attacks by the enemy character, in much the same way that a single attack roll with a blaster rifle by a minion group of stormtroopers is actually a series of shots fired by each stormtrooper; to keep things simple from a mechanical perspective only a single dice roll is made to reflect the whole exchange.

Another point to consider is that the combat system in this game is built around the idea that combat is dangerous to the PCs, and that they can't just waltz through enemy fire with impunity, as can often be the case with other RPGs; D&D and the various d20 Star Wars games were notorious for this, as you could easily reach a point where mooks could only score a hit on a natural 20 simply by properly manipulating the system to buff up your AC/Defense. In the last Saga Edition game I played in, we had a Force user PC that was borderline invulnerable to enemy fire with talents to force the bad guys to attack him instead of the other, far squishier party members. Really cut down on the threat level if the one PC that gets attacked can shrug off 90% of the damage that comes his way.

Protect, with a sufficiently good Discipline check, short-circuits that notion of "combat is dangerous" and can make a PC nigh-invulnerable to enemy attacks, particularly those lacking the Breach quality. A combat encounter should never be a "sleepwalk your way to victory" but a PC that's running the Protect power every round doesn't have nearly as much to worry about as the rest of the group. So to avoid that and keep said PC on their toes, it's a choice between being able to directly contribute in taking down the bad guys, or making sure they can't be hurt by using Protect.

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