So Im making a back up character for the group im in, and we are using all three books BUt since I only currently have the EotE book, I was hoping someone good help me with a point at which specializations I might want to use.

Any ways, besides being heavy on the melee skill, the real thing im having trouble with is converting the idea of an old school, physical piece of metal shield. Im open to any race that has a high sense of personal honor, and make sense that they still use that type of combat. Other wise, throw away at me.

I'm not opposed to being force sensitive either, though I dont find it very likely that I will be buying force powers though.

Not sure which race would suit you (Wookiee seems obvious, so I imagine you've rejected it for some reason) but the career is very easy:

Hired Gun: Marauder (EotE)

Move into Bodyguard, or possibly Enforcer (both still Hired Gun specs, the latter from Dangerous Covenants) when you've had your fill.

Just wanted to make clearer that Im actually more interested in some of the specializations in the other books. Marauder is definetly the deadly striker part, but I was curious if any one knew any good equipment or specializations that could help me represent the shield aspect of the idea.

I actually havent decided on a race at all really. Wookiee can very well work, just was open to any other ideas. Ones from the other books possibly.

Makashi Duelist or Soresu Defender, or buy a Riot , it's in Far Horizons.

The Colonists Performer specialisation is an interesting alternative, it's heavy on the Charm and Deception related talents, as well as well as strain recovery. But it has the Melee skill as well so you can be very effective in hand to hand.

And the other definite options open to you are the Bounty Hunter Assasin and Gadgeteer, both of which have some nice talents to use in Melee.

From the Age of Rebellion core book there are the Soldier Comando and Spy Infiltrator for some nice talents relating to Melee. But also any character taking the Universal Recruit specialisation as a second (or third!) specialisation will toughen up significantly and gets the combat skills as career skills quite quickly.

From F&D, the Warrior/Aggressor is a powerful specialization, especially when combined with Hired Gun. You will need to play close to the dark side, to make good use of Aggressor.

The Shien lightsaber style is good on ranged defense, but is not oriented towards one-on-one duels. Makashi is great for melee defense, and is absolutely ideal for one-on-one duels. Shii-cho is good for melee combat with multiple opponents. Ataru is good for high-agility offense-oriented types that are going to be doing a lot of jumping around in melee combat.

From AoR, Soldier is the melee-oriented career, and the Commando specialization would be a particularly strong combination with Hired Gun.

The Universal Recruit could also be good.

I should add that my first character in FFG’s version of SWRPG was a Wookiee Marauder, and I can tell you that can be a very powerful combination. And Wookiees do have a strong sense of honor. But they’re also kind of an obvious choice, so if you’re looking for a less-obvious choice then maybe you want to go a different direction.

In my case, I found that I wanted to move into Hired Gun/Heavy to pick up some Burly and other talents I found useful.

From there I went into Doctor. I specifically chose Doctor over Medic from AoR, after careful consideration of their respective talent trees and Specialization skills. Self-application of stimpacks was usually enough for most healing, but it was occasionally very handy to have someone on hand who could do that better than doing it yourself. Doctor also gave me the Pressure Point talent, which allowed me to do a heck of a lot of damage to opponents that was stun-only, so that I didn’t have to kill them.

I had saved up enough XP to move into Force-Sensitive Exile when that campaign got put on hold, and we switched to playing F&D, where I created a totally different character.

But if you want a tank that can really take the damage and then dish it back out in melee, I can’t imagine a choice that would be better than Wookiee Marauder. There might be alternatives that are as good, but I can’t think of anything that would be better.

Although, a Hutt Warrior/Aggressor/Shii-Cho Master that uses Enhance with Force Leap could be really **** bloody scary! Call him Beldorian.

Makashi Duelist or Soresu Defender, or buy a Riot , it's in Far Horizons.

Sweet!!! A riot shield, I think that will do everything I want nicely

The Force and Destiny book has the Cortosis Shield

900 credits

Qualities:
Cortosis, Cumbersome 3, Defensive 2, Deflection 2

It has 1 less hardpoint than Riot shield but has lower Encumbrance and has Cortosis.

The Cortosis quality on this shield (shields count as weapons for rules purposes) makes it immune to sunder.

Enemies can still make you drop it by spending triumph or advantage.

Nautolan is a species that gets 3 in brawn but only a 1 in willpower. Unlike Wookies and Trandoshans, they start with 100 experience instead of 90, but they don't get as many extra wounds.

If you use a melee weapon like a Vibroaxe or Sword, you can use two-weapon combat for a chance to add your offhand damage to an attack and only incur a single difficulty die.

*edit Vibroaxes might be two-handed.