This is entirely about satisfying my curiosity, but I'm wondering how many specializations people include when making a general plan for a character. For instance, for my astromech Technician to be able to eventually do everything I want it to, I'll want to have the Mechanic, Doctor (switched for cybernetics when the new book comes out), and Outlaw Tech trees. I might pick up the Slicer tree if the GM shows interest in getting more complex with slicing encounters. After I get what I want from those trees, I don't know where I'd go next. Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure another player in the game will end up with half a dozen specializations at least in the process of taking his character from Bounty Hunter to nascent Jedi duelist.

So how many specializations does your current character have, and how many do you expect to pick up over the character's lifespan?

Playing in a mixed EotE/AoR/FaD game, PCs have about 300ish xp.

I'm playing a FaD character, 2 specializations (Seeker Ataru Striker, Seer). Bulk of XP is across force powers and talents in the trees, but I'm slowly approaching a need for a 3rd spec.

Other players are:

Ace Pilot, Politico

Smuggler Gunsligner

Hired Gun Mercenary Soldier, Gadgeteer

Largely its so few specializations because the pilot and gunslinger players are rather new to the system, and instead are focusing more on talents and skills tied to their trees, whereas the Soldier/Gadgeteer player is a bit more familiar, but is also far more skill focused.

Generally, as far as "how many," that's really an XP rate question combined with what you want to do in the long run and how content you are with your career skills.

I would definitely say that for each specialization bought, you likely should be spending twice as much XP on skills or talents to justify purchasing the tree.

Also playing Astromech (wooo)

Only two sessions in, so nothing much thus far. Started out with slicer and will definitely pick up mechanic at some point.

Later on I would like to get something unconventional, since my Astro already has an integrated Holdout Blaster and is "owned" by a another PC who is a Bounty Hunter.

Maybe something about blowing stuff up. Already dreaming about a rocket tube mounted to one of the Astromechs shoulders.

Lets see, my Princess started with Politco, picked up Entrepreneur before I wound up getting Force Exile (mostly just for color) and the Fancy Duelist - but I wound up respecing out of that when I realized that it was more the Player's desire than a natural growth of the character.

My new character, an engineer, well she only has the starting career right now, but she'll pick up the Generic Recruit Tree in pretty short order and then I might save up for the Slicer tree or the Outlaw Tech tree - plus whatever comes in the new book, if it ever moves on from the Printer. . . . .

Across our various campaigns and 4-5 groups, our record is five - Pilot, Hotshot, Recruit (given free in this case), Beast Rider and Force Sensitive Emergent.

Some of those mesh together nicely, others don't, but it makes for a versatile and powerful character. We've spent enough time on Onderon to justify the Beast Rider skills.

Oskara (played since EotE's beginner game) started off a Gadgeteer, dabbled in Survivalist and picked up Assassin before our EotE game ended.

Jin-Rio (played since AoR's beginner game) started off as an Ambassador but quickly moved on to Quartermaster.

Mina (played since a Clone Wars campaign in SAGA) started off as a Shadow and bought Shien Expert with Knight-level XP. That's moot, however, as our GM dislikes FaD for Clone Wars era shenanigans. Instead we'll be going back to WEG's D6 system. Not sure how I feel about that, but I'll play anything.

Roco Sam (EoE) began as a Doctor that moved into Scholar. For reasons related to having more fun with the game, I dropped him in favor of Zima Kalam , who is a Marshal and Gunslinger, and was since character creation.

Koh Naal (FaD) began as a beta Ataru Striker, kept through the upgrade to the full game, and picked up Starfighter Ace and, more recently, Hunter.

Those are the only games I play in. For those that I run, the average among my players tends to be two: Mara Bell , a Driver and Force Sensitive Exile (whose player claims she'll pick up Ataru Striker once she finds a mentor); Cavisek , a Doctor who picked up Politico to be the group's main negotiator; Ragei'zum'zrama , a Slicer who just picked up Outlaw Tech in order to get more mechanical stuff; and BX-91 , who is just a Heavy (but whose player is saving up for one of the signature abilities, probably the one what wipes the board clean of minions).

I have the curse of always GMing, but my players have:

Ace:Pilot + Force Sensitive Exile + Gunslinger

Diplomat:Ambassador + Force Sensitive Exile + Propagandist

Hired Gun:Enforcer + Force Sensitive Exile (plus the full Enhance tree) + Scoundrel

Just gonna throw this out there, but wouldn't XP totals be useful to have as well?

I mean, if I run a "campaign" of EotE and only give my players 20xp over the duration of the game, my players are going to have dramatically different amounts of specializations than if I ran a campaign of EotE and over the course of it my players received 10k xp.

In the game I am currently playing in, the average xp is around 380. All 6 players have two specs. After I get my next 25 xp talent I've got my eye on, I will most likely pick up a third spec. I know one of the other players is glancing at other specs looking to pick up their third.

In the game I am currently running, the average xp is about 300. Two of the players have 2 specs. The third player picked up their signature ability, and started upgrading that.

With some other games in my group's history, it seems to me that players will get a second spec somewhere around 200-300 earned xp, then an additional spec every 250-ish xp after that. Keep in mind that an entire talent tree can be mastered for 300 xp, plus the xp to acquire it, and most players I know haven't purchased any tree in its entirety.

The most any of my players have ever picked up is 3 total. I think there's something daunting about the XP cost for that 4th specialization. I give out around 20 XP per session, so they figure they can bank some this session and then have enough to purchase a specialization next session. But two sessions' worth of XP for access to a spec is prohibitive.

My current character in a mixed system game started as a Consular: Sage, then picked up both Healer and Niman Disciple. We're at about 800 earned experience now. If I didn't have to sink so much into Force powers I'd probably have at least one more tree, but the Heal power alone has eaten over 100 xp.

We're about ready to start a new campaign, which is mostly Force & Destiny, with one EotE Mechanic. I'm planning on starting with Sentinel: Shadow, then jumping over to Force Sensitive Emergent. I'm sure I'll pick up a third tree, but not sure what yet. I'll have to see how the character progresses.

I think Jedi/Force characters will generally have fewer trees then others because they have to invest so many points into Force Powers. Especially if they want some of the expensive powers like Heal/Harm or Protect/Unleash.

I think we're at 280 XP earned and I've got two, Artisan and Shien Expert, and every party member has at least taken a second spec if not invested into talents. Neither of mine are anywhere near what I would consider "complete" and probably won't be since we're wrapping within the foreseeable future. No Force powers because I'm primarily the mechanic although Sense is tempting with Improved Reflect, but I'm filling in some holes in my skill ranks right now.

For the record, my group is only at about 80 XP earned, as it has taken us several sessions to get through Beyond the Rim and the GM didn't want to award XP in the middle of an episode. I intend to fill out Mechanic down to Natural Tinker and Dedication before I go anywhere else, but if we start encountering a lot of personal-scale combat I might divert to Outlaw Tech early for those active defenses. Doctor isn't getting filled out because I'm switching it for cyber-tech when Special Modifications comes out, and I figure the fewer XP I spend in it, the easier that transition will be.

When I was playing in an EotE game, my Wookiee was a Hired Gun:Marauder, added Heavy so that he could carry a more gear and be a tougher tank in melee combat, then added Doctor because our player who had been the Doctor left the game (and I really wanted to pick up Pressure Point ), and then I had just added Force Sensitive Exile at the time the game shut down. That was around 650 XP earned.

My other character was a Droid Technician:Mechanic and then added Slicer. Probably around 200 XP earned.

In the F&D game, with characters starting at Knight Level, my character was a Mystic:Advisor/Seer, and was later going to add Sage. But I took over as GM for that game before I got to that point, and so that character has now had to retire. That was with 475 XP earned (including the 150 XP for Knight Level).

I don’t know of anyone in any of the games I’ve played in who had more than three or four specializations.

Un-played, but my favourite concept is a Pathfinder, Seer, Beast Rider, Gunslinger with a healthy dose of Sense and Enhance. Wild West meets Star Wars.

We're about ready to start a new campaign, which is mostly Force & Destiny, with one EotE Mechanic. I'm planning on starting with Sentinel: Shadow, then jumping over to Force Sensitive Emergent. I'm sure I'll pick up a third tree, but not sure what yet. I'll have to see how the character progresses.

Our campaign will finally be starting this weekend after several delays, and I'm starting with a dual spec in Bounty Hunter: Assassin and Force Sensitive Emergent. Later on, I plan on branching into Sentinel: Shadow. I really love the synergy between the trees and it should make for a fun and interesting character.

The Spy: Infiltrator tree would also be a good fit, but my character is focused more on Ranged - Heavy than Brawl/Melee.

I GM right now, but my players are: a Hired gun Mercenary soldier, a Smuggler Scoundrel/Force sensitive, and a Sentinel Artisan/Soresu Defender. I know the smuggler is looking into gunslinger, but for now they've all avoided to spread out too much, which can be a problem, especially with two Force users in the group.

I find 1-2 specs is character forming, 3-4 specs is character defining and 5+ is character should be looking to retire.

My characters usually race to 2 specs and then leisurely build through spec 3 and 4 once we're between 200 and 500 XP.

My ~370 Earned XP SWTOR era Sith game has the following:

Duelist - Seer, Makashi Duelist, Shii Cho Knight

"Stabs First" - Soresu Defender, Assassin

Sith Inquisitor - Seer, Sage, Politico

Infiltrator - Shadow, Recruit

Do note, however, I did give everyone a free spec to ease our transition from Saga Edition (the campaign is slow running due to schedules and started sometime before the FaD beta came out).

My current game is at just over 700 xp. We have: (quotes are their fighter call signs)

Sorin Kel "Reaper" (former Tie/In pilot): Corellian Human male Ace - Hotshot, Rigger, Pilot, Gadgeteer, Recruit, Driver. Getting ready to pick up Squadron Leader

Cho'suta "Siren" (former dancing girl): Twi'lek female Smuggler - Charmer, Performer, Force Sensative Exile, Shien Expert, Recruit, Starfighter Ace

R3D-616 aka Red "Revenant" (one of Teemo's gladiators): BX Commando droid Bounty Hunter - Assassin, Gadgeteer, Survuvalist, Recruit, Fringer, Bodyguard

Zac Ramis "Gremlin" (former black sun hacker): Human male Spy - Slicer, Mechanic, Pilot, Recruit, Analyst, Scientist

No one has completed a spec yet or raised a skill to 5. We're waiting for dramatically appropriate scenes and challenges to reach the final level (and find the glow )

They still regularly out perform and get owned by the standard adventure level of mooks and enemies. (they took down an adult zakkeg with little damage but almost got owned by a stormtrooper sgt and 2 4 man stormtrooper groups. lol)

So all of ours have 6 currently and planning on more.

I have a 175xp game and so far everyone is sticking to their original specializations.

This is a survey of the player characters who have appeared in our story.

Cal Coda is a Seer / Makashi Duelist. He's deep into Seer and has filled out the duelist tree. I don't foresee a third spec, or even additional talent buys from Seer, anytime soon. He has a FR-3, Lightsaber-3, Discipline-3. He has a solid basis in force powers, but has plenty of room to grow there. He also has several skills at 1 that could be improved. And, while he gets by skill-wise, he could stand to broaden his skill competencies. If I were to run for FR-4, I'd go with aggressor as its only 75 points to the first force rating and its only a few talents that stack (intimidation-2, fearsome-3, some grit, etc), but I like where he's at and don't see a point in making that run at present.

Sigyn Ilbis is also a Seer / Makashi Duelist. Her player is more inclined to leverage more narrative oriented aspects of foresee, seek, and sense in play. She has a FR-2, but is only 40 points away from FR-3. She's already at Lightsaber-3, so her intent is to push to FR-3 and then start dividing expenditures between more force powers and duelist talents. She has the full force leap branch of enhance, but only the basic move. I know bind and move are more dramatic ("sexier") powers that she wants to build.

Kaya Ilbis is a Shadow / Shien Expert. She's 25 points away from FR-2, but has no way up without dipping into another tree. She's digging aggressively into the shien tree. Her player has focused narrowly on the traditional Sense-Move-Leap force powers and is, along with building her saber-monkey skills and maxing out her force-leaping, is starting to dig into move. She knows, to really make the most out of that, she'll need a third spec with a FR in it. But, for the present, she has plenty to spend her points on.

R2-Q3 is an astromech droid with the slicer / mechanic trees. He also has several "upgrades."

Druuna Kyntille is a Twilek Charmer who is deep into the Unmatched Fortune tree. She has a fairly broad set of skill competencies with both ranged skills at 3. The player is looking at buying into the gunslinger tree.

Sando Kun is a Gambler / Pilot. He's deep into both trees and has Pilot-3, Gunnery-3.

I would say two trees is pretty standard for our group. The issue with force users who are modeled on Jedi is that you generally need a saber form tree and a regular force tree, but unless you pick Niman as your form, or Seer or Scholar as your regular force tree, you will need a third spec to get past FR-2. This on top of buying into power trees. If you play long enough to get to a point where Jedi characters are looking at that third spec, your non-Jedi characters will have likely maxed out two trees and built hellacious skill-sets. So, unless they just plan on plateauing, they will need somewhere to go as well. For me this is an aesthetic / stylistic problem as I like narrower / more clearly defined character concepts.

I'd prefer other avenues of growth for "high level" / "long-running" characters.

Barton Varlowe, Corellian disgraced CorSec Agent, looking for reinstitution. I don't play him anymore, since his Storyline is finished. He's a powerful Nemesis NPC now for my own campaign (either as an ally or as an opponent, depending on player's choice).

At the end he had three Specs at 1200 XP and still had trouble against some book-nemeses. That's how well balanced this game actually is.

He had started as a Corellian Human Colonist Marshal, with the piloting - space skill upped to 3 via XP. I know that is costly, but it was important for my character concept of a disgraced CorSec Agent - they are all flyboys.

Then he cross-specialized into Hotshot, to better suit his style of flying, and finally Gunslinger, which he adapted, while going on the "Edge (of the Empire)".

Was really fun to play as him.

I like to plan my characters ahead of time a bit. Because we haven't had chances to play the game much (once every 2 weeks), I've only gotten started with my force user character.

I plan to have 3 specializations: Jedi Warrior: Shii Cho Knight, Aggressor and Jedi Exile. These are the classes that best reflect my character's more physical approach at the force, and the more self taught path he's on. When in combat, he's all about raw power that smashes into enemy groups and destroys them as fast as he can. But obviously he will have tough time with blaster fire, as he doesn't have the deflect ability at all. Also planning to make him excel at the more physical skills and social skills. But he won't be that good when it comes to operating a ship or fixing things.

Those are the plans, but we'll see where the game takes me.