Hey guys! Since this is my first post, I might as well make a small introduction. I've lurked the forums for a while, as I learned about the system, and with my first session coming up I thought I might as well start taking part in the forums. I've been rping for about a decade, mostly old world of darkness, with some other games sprinkled here and there.

Now on to the question at hand. We're gonna start a campaign set in the Old Republic era, and I'm gonna be playing a Sith Sage/Niman Disciple (we're using Knight Level Play for xp), with the intent of having him become something of a "Force wizard", relying heavily on Force powers in and out of combat, and specializing mostly in knowledge skills when out of combat. Now, I'm not a min-maxer, as I enjoy the narrative aspect of roleplaying above all else, but I also like to optimize characters a little, as I also like characters who specialize and can do some things really well.

As I have him currently set up, he's 4will (this is non-negotiable, as I need it for roleplaying reasons and to be an effective force user), 4 int, and investing heavily into the Sense power, with some points into Foresee. Now, I was originally gonna spend some points in the Heal/Harm power, seeing as how it's so effective with the ability to ignore soak and recover strain, and was later gonna branch off to developing the Protect/Unleash power. However, I later realised that Medicine is not a career skill for him, so he's probably never gonna be able to squeeze the most out of Harm. So I guess my question is, should I just forget about Heal/Harm altogether and instead try to reach Protect/Unleash as fast as possible? And if I do this, should I lower int to 3 and better spend the xp elsewhere (I'm kinda reluctant to do this, as rping wise the character should have 4 in int)? Or maybe I should still keep the base Harm power + control upgrade to be able to recover strain, seeing as how darksiders can have problems with it. Maybe I should just scrap Harm and invest some into Move + Hurl upgrade, as this synergizes better with Niman Disciple, and later branch off into Unleash.

In any case, any thoughts involving this are welcome, as no amount of theorycrafting can hold a candle to actualy experience with the system. Thanks a lot, and looking forward to being a part of the community

Starting the Protector specialization would gain you access to the medicine skill, as would the Healer. My character is similar to yours, I started as a Niman and will take Sage as my main source of force rating. I was considering Protector for the medicine skill and ranged light skill. It also has the benefit of giving you some more ranks of parry and reflect.

To be fair, the total "tax" for 5 ranks of out of class skill is 25exp. As adding the specialization wouldn't be in character for you, and the new skill tree wouldn't necessarily provide you with anything else interesting, then I would just buy the Medicine ranks with the tax ...

Now, if you wanted the storyline to be that he was identified for training in Sith interrogation techniques, then you definitely could add the Healer spec to it (which has medicine and represents a Sith who would "keep his subjects alive" long enough to tell what they knew). This would also stay in the Consular career, allowing you to only need to spend 30xp to pick it up.

What species is your character? Though to be fair, you could quite easily start off with an inti of 3, spread the other into another useful skill to make him a more rounded character and simply buy a dedication/skill ranks to round it off. Can't buy the dedication? Well, how valuble is the force rating of 4 to you? For a Darkside user 3 dice is plenty reliable and Destiny points are there to be spent for when one narratively needs to strain themselves. If so, there's a way of obtaining everything you desire.

Niman is a good tree, but if your not actually making lightsaber combat a big thing, why should you? You can have your dedication, medicine training and your force rating by diving right into protector and leave all that petty flashy displays for those meat heads that are less capable in the force then you! Not to mention you can channel the force into making you even harder to kill on a short term basis against mundane weapons while retaining enough capability to keep back a foe. Sure, you will be rather poor with a lightsaber unless you chose to go WIll/brawn/Int (which also isn't a bad idea for a generalist; 3 brawn can hit decently well and unlike melee users that have to dive all in to make it work, a lightsaber doesn't need a high strength to do serious damage), but from the way you describe it your more of a scholar of the dark arts instead, so your main method's of attack would be leeching the very essence out of someone, or letting a comrade deal with it because such trival matters are under your character.

E.g. Drop Niman, pick up Protector, and become that mad scientist other's dream you to be!

Thxs for all the great feedback guys! My character is Chiss (for rping reasons, this won't change no matter what), and truth be told I only went into Niman to get the Niman Technique talent. Protector seems like a fine tree, but I just can't reconcile it with my character's concept, and many of the talents are too geared to, well, protecting others, which is the opposite of what I'll be doing .

I like what Kyla said about the Healer spec, as it fits perfectly into my character's concept (he's gonna be in counter-intelligence for the Sith Empire), but I've always thought that going without the Niman Technique for this character would be a little suicide.

So I think that now I'm torn between choosing Healer as secondary spec and Niman third (eventually, when I've achieved the build's core abilities), or vice versa. I guess the choice lies in whether I'll be able to survive without Parry/Reflect talents in the early game (considering I'll be using Harm, which by default has a range of engaged), or if I can afford to dip into Niman for Niman Technique and buy Healer as a third spec the first or second session... what do you guys think?

It comes down to what you want more - access to Lightsaber at the start or access to Medicine at the start, because that's the only real difference between Healer and Niman.

Parry/Reflect is good, but not great - and that 10 points could get you pretty close to the first range upgrade to take Harm out to Short range.

On the other hand, keeping Niman makes you more capable and fits the Old Republic Sith much better (as you wouldn't make it far without being skilled in lightsaber combat - even if it weren't your preferred method of fighting). Taking Medicine later won't hurt your starting concept as you won't need the Medicine until you get much further into the Harm tree.

If it were me, I would stay Niman as it fits with the background of the Sith Academy on Korriban teaching lightsaber techniques early on. I would then pick up Healer later on when I was deeper into the Harm tree and needed the Medicine.