Hey folks,

So my group is playing out of all three books and I am the sole force user in the bunch. I've chosen to go with Ataru Striker (I like the lightsaber abilities), and I want to do some long range shooting as well (want to dip into the hunter later on). I want my character to focus on light saber skills, long range shooting, and eventually get good at the force powers move, sense, and enhance. I know I won't be able to start out with everything, but I would like to be able to help out if things get a little dangerous.

Here is what I've started with and I would LOVE any suggestions to edit my character.

Characteristics:

Br: 2 Ag: 3 Int: 2 Cun: 3 Will: 3 Pres: 2

Skills (career then rank):

Athletics-1

Coordination

Perception

Piloting (both)- 1

Stealth

Survival

Vigilance

Lightsaber-1

Ranged (light)-

Ranged (heavy)-1

Xenology-

I am unsure as what to do with my last remaining XP.

I was flopping between obtaining enhance or move, or starting on the striker's talents such as getting quick draw. Let me know what you guys think! I can clarify later and check my math for XP, but I don't have my book on me right now.

I have this feeling your character isn't human, since you're having issues about where to place your "last remaining XP."

If that's indeed the case, I'm assuming you only have 10XP left, which makes me ask: are you starting with a lightsaber?

Because if you are, then you need to take up the +10XP character creation option and go straight to Ataru Technique, or else your Lightsaber skill will still be rolling against Brawn, of which you only have 2. To counteract this (in case the GM has not allowed you to take the +10XP option), you can move the points you used from Cunning to Brawn.

If you aren't starting with any sort of lightsaber, then there's more reason to use your last 10XP to improve your Ranged (Heavy) skill. In fact, if this is the case, you'd be better off starting with Hunter in the first place, as you'd be able to start with 2 free ranks in Ranged (Heavy), while avoiding the dead skill rank of Lightsaber 1 when you still have no lightsaber to use it on.

Hey folks,

So my group is playing out of all three books and I am the sole force user in the bunch. I've chosen to go with Ataru Striker (I like the lightsaber abilities), and I want to do some long range shooting as well (want to dip into the hunter later on). I want my character to focus on light saber skills, long range shooting, and eventually get good at the force powers move, sense, and enhance. I know I won't be able to start out with everything, but I would like to be able to help out if things get a little dangerous.

Here is what I've started with and I would LOVE any suggestions to edit my character.

Characteristics:

Br: 2 Ag: 3 Int: 2 Cun: 3 Will: 3 Pres: 2

Skills (career then rank):

Athletics-1

Coordination

Perception

Piloting (both)- 1

Stealth

Survival

Vigilance

Lightsaber-1

Ranged (light)-

Ranged (heavy)-1

Xenology-

I am unsure as what to do with my last remaining XP.

I was flopping between obtaining enhance or move, or starting on the striker's talents such as getting quick draw. Let me know what you guys think! I can clarify later and check my math for XP, but I don't have my book on me right now.

If you want to have decent capability to be hard to hit in combat, I would strongly urge you to invest into Sense as much as you can, as early as you can. If you can get some of the fairly easy to purchase upgrades, you can just commit your Force die, and suddenly be a LOT harder to hit in combat. It's a really good starting Force power for anyone who is planning on being in combat a lot. Beyond that, I would say invest in whatever things you plan on doing the most early on in the game. If you want to focus more on the lightsabery stuff, then invest into your saberform, want to shoot people more? Invest in ranged light.

I have questions about your min maxing:

Are you starting with a lightsaber? ( training or ancient sword)

What are you using your 3 cunning for if you are a going to be a pure agility character?

The 3 agility and 3 willpower I can see if for lightsaber/ranged and vig/dis.

As others have indicated, whether or not you start with something that will let you use the Lightsaber skill is important. Another question: Has your group picked its group resource yet? If you're getting a Mentor as your group resource, you definitely want to hold off on any force powers, but otherwise you can consider grabbing Enhance or Sense out of the gate.

I have questions about your min maxing:
Are you starting with a lightsaber? ( training or ancient sword)

What are you using your 3 cunning for if you are a going to be a pure agility character?

The 3 agility and 3 willpower I can see if for lightsaber/ranged and vig/dis.

Well, if picking up Hunter is the plan, then sooner or later Soft Spot will benefit from having a 3 Cunning, and Cunning covers several useful non-combat skills that the character might find handy. I'm a big proponent of not neglecting the "min" aspect of min/maxing, and in this system, that means making sure you have useful ways to contribute to encounters that don't have to do with your specialty. Higher Cunning gives better Deception (social contribution), Perception (general contribution), and better odds with covert actions (ability to help circumvent combat encounters rather than charging in all the time).

I'll second Radon Antila's suggestion that you might consider starting with Hunter as your spec instead of Ataru Striker if you don't have a lightsaber-ish weapon or will need to keep a low profile even if you do. Hunter is a great all-around tree, as it has plenty of skill talents to go with the combat boosting talents, as opposed to Ataru Striker, which is really really combat focused.

I would definitely love to hear the species your wanting to play. If your really wanting to minmax a Lightsaber/Ranged character you should probably be getting a 4 in agility, but personally i do like 3 3's over a 3 and a 4

I am unsure as what to do with my last remaining XP.

Stats are meaningless. Tell us your concept and we can help.

I have this feeling your character isn't human, since you're having issues about where to place your "last remaining XP."

If that's indeed the case, I'm assuming you only have 10XP left, which makes me ask: are you starting with a lightsaber?

Because if you are, then you need to take up the +10XP character creation option and go straight to Ataru Technique, or else your Lightsaber skill will still be rolling against Brawn, of which you only have 2. To counteract this (in case the GM has not allowed you to take the +10XP option), you can move the points you used from Cunning to Brawn.

If you aren't starting with any sort of lightsaber, then there's more reason to use your last 10XP to improve your Ranged (Heavy) skill. In fact, if this is the case, you'd be better off starting with Hunter in the first place, as you'd be able to start with 2 free ranks in Ranged (Heavy), while avoiding the dead skill rank of Lightsaber 1 when you still have no lightsaber to use it on.

Actually I am human...Sorry I definitely should have clarified that. I'll put my concept at the end of this post!

I have questions about your min maxing:

Are you starting with a lightsaber? ( training or ancient sword)

What are you using your 3 cunning for if you are a going to be a pure agility character?

The 3 agility and 3 willpower I can see if for lightsaber/ranged and vig/dis.

I am starting with a broken lightsaber...The goal is to get it working again so I can use it. The cunning is for sneaking and social interactions.

I would definitely love to hear the species your wanting to play. If your really wanting to minmax a Lightsaber/Ranged character you should probably be getting a 4 in agility, but personally i do like 3 3's over a 3 and a 4

I thought that three 3's would be better to round out the character.

I am unsure as what to do with my last remaining XP.

Stats are meaningless. Tell us your concept and we can help.

Concept/Story:

My character was the son of a Jedi knight during the end of the clone wars. He originally lived in the Underworld of Coruscant His grandfather secretly took care of him so the father could do his Jedi stuff without being disowned from the order. When Order 66 came out, troopers killed the father, but the grandfather was able to collect some of the father's things (journal of his adventures, piloting, and some knowledge of the force, and a lightsaber hilt); he gave them to my character and then sent him away before the troopers could confiscate the Jedi paraphernalia. The storm troopers killed the grandfather.

My character stole away on a freighter with a few smugglers and learned a lot about piloting and smuggling. The Empire boarded the ship, and he escaped in a pod. Ends up on a dense forest planet. He found some small villages that were skilled as fighters and hunters. Here he learns how to fight (something like ataru technique), and hunt. On this planet, he finds a force nexus and learns he has special powers that aid him in becoming a better fighter and hunter.

So overall, I'm trying to learn more about this power. I have background in fighting, and using ranged weapons. He learned how to be sneaky while hunting, and knows how to use his cunning to find out information.

Does this help or was that too winded?

As others have indicated, whether or not you start with something that will let you use the Lightsaber skill is important. Another question: Has your group picked its group resource yet? If you're getting a Mentor as your group resource, you definitely want to hold off on any force powers, but otherwise you can consider grabbing Enhance or Sense out of the gate.

We are going to start out with a light freighter I believe!

I would go 4 agility, 3 cunning, then use your first dedication to bump willpower, and start sinking XP into move around then. With the powers you talked about, it looks like you won't need discipline for a while (I personally avoid move, liking enhance more for flavor and starting usefulness...sense is cool too).

Take 5 extra obligation for credits, get an SKZ-Sporting blaster with a scope and a sling (1000 credits total, sons of fortune). Get heavy clothing and an ancient sword with starting credits, (if your GM allows it, it is rarity 7) then take 5 obligation for 5XP and buy up into Ataru technique!

Or if you're not doing obligation, just use your morality bonuses!

This gives you a good option at long range for cheap (I love the SKZ), a reason to bump lightsaber and still be useful, and it's not as flashy or as dangerous to use as a lightsaber, even if it is just a training saber. Also, it makes sense that whatever warrior group you trained with would use swords instead of lightsabers, or maybe I just like that more!

So there it is! This is how I would minmax your concept! It's not even that OP, just useful in a lot of ways!

Min-max: drop human and pick up a species with a 3 in something you want to focus on and a 2 or better in agility. Bump agility up to 4 and that other stat up to 4. Focus on doubling up on your skills so that you start with 2 ranks in as many skills as possible. Buy starting gear that will increase your encumbrance threshold and the cheapest weapons in the books -- you'll be able to loot weapons as soon as you have a fight, but getting credits to buy gear is going to be harder.

That's my suggestion for a min/max approach. Bolt story on to suit.

If you're stuck on human, I suggest going with 4 agi and 3 cunning. I've seen lots of humans played with 4 3s and they're not good enough at anything to be counted on until they get more XP. Exceeding an average check with only one die results in a failure entirely too frequently for me to consider it a "good build".

Then again, that's just my perspective and your own might vary. In fact, I've heard a lot of people say they like failing and that it makes the story more interesting. While it does that, it also causes frustration on the part of the rest of the players who expect the mechanic to actually be able to mechanic reliably...

I would go 4 agility, 3 cunning, then use your first dedication to bump willpower, and start sinking XP into move around then. With the powers you talked about, it looks like you won't need discipline for a while (I personally avoid move, liking enhance more for flavor and starting usefulness...sense is cool too).

Take 5 extra obligation for credits, get an SKZ-Sporting blaster with a scope and a sling (1000 credits total, sons of fortune). Get heavy clothing and an ancient sword with starting credits, (if your GM allows it, it is rarity 7) then take 5 obligation for 5XP and buy up into Ataru technique!

Or if you're not doing obligation, just use your morality bonuses!

This gives you a good option at long range for cheap (I love the SKZ), a reason to bump lightsaber and still be useful, and it's not as flashy or as dangerous to use as a lightsaber, even if it is just a training saber. Also, it makes sense that whatever warrior group you trained with would use swords instead of lightsabers, or maybe I just like that more!

So there it is! This is how I would minmax your concept! It's not even that OP, just useful in a lot of ways!

You mentioned taking obligation...Wouldn't that 'break' my character? I know people playing out of EotE can take on obligation, but could I do the same to increase my XP amount? I think I will take the extra 10 XP as opposed to taking any extra morality or credits, which is allowed in the beginning of character creation from FaD.

I almost want to ask the group if I could start out in Knight level play; but that definitely feels like I'd be starting out ahead of everyone. I know the characters are all supposed to pan out evenly later on, but I would like to be on par with everybody at the get go. I will definitely change my stats though. I feel like that would help!

As others have said, I'd advise starting with a different Specialization until you know you are getting a Lightsabre then take your LS Spec.

Also if you are the only F&D Career and only Force User ask your GM if you can take Mentor for yourself, suggest that the "Mentor" is actually a Holocron made by your PC's father or whatever that helps you learn the Force.

Okay how about this....I took the 10 xp bonus so overall I've got 120 to spend:

Human- Hunter (100 on stats)

Br: 2 Ag: 4 Int: 2 Cun: 3 Will: 2 Pre: 2

Career skills + level

Knowledge (Xenology)-

Piloting (Planetary) - 1

Piloting (Space) - 1

Ranged (Heavy) - 1

Survival-

Vigilance- 1

Coordination-

Stealth- 1

Human Level 1 Career bonuses

Cool- 1

Ranged (Light)- 1

(all my levels are free)

Talents:

-Toughened- 1

-Expert Tracker- 1

Force Powers:

Sense

1) Since you want to shoot at long range, Ranged (Light) has no purpose for you, other than if you lose your rifle and have to use a sidearm, and even then you'd still be rolling 4 dice. It would be better to move that Human non-career bonus to something you'd use more often, like Perception or Deception, both of which fit with your concept while still keying off your Cunning stat.

2) Right now, it looks like you intend to use all of your XP (including the +10XP bonus) for talents and force powers and won't have enough starting credits to buy even a basic blaster rifle, thus rendering your 1 rank in Ranged (Heavy) useless until you pick up a rifle from your opponents, or one of your group members hands you their spare.

Thus, I would just suggest thatinstead of the +10XP option, you choose the "+5XP and +1000 credits" option. This extra money allows you to start with a basic blaster rifle* for sniping purposes. You can strengthen that aspect of your character by putting that one rank in Piloting (Planetary)** towards your second rank in Ranged (Heavy), as I previously recommended. This allows you to start out as a strong sniper (2 Ability+2 Proficiency+Aim Boost vs. 3 Difficulty), though you would have to drop one of your talents in order to fit the lower XP total.

*The SKZ is good if credits are an issue, but its Crit rating of 4 is suboptimal for a long-range shooter. The basic blaster rifle may be 300 credits more expensive, but it starts with a Crit of 3, which is far easier to achieve when you're rolling against 3 Difficulty.

**You said your group will start with a light freighter, but are you starting with any kind of speeder? If not, then Piloting (Planetary) will end up being used significantly less often than Ranged (Heavy).

I'd say get rid of Toughened (you shouldn't need it early on) and add a rank of Survival as Survival is likely going to be the Skill you use for setting an outdoor Ambush. Keep the Ranged Light because you're going to be using your side arm more often on civilised worlds.

1) Since you want to shoot at long range, Ranged (Light) has no purpose for you, other than if you lose your rifle and have to use a sidearm, and even then you'd still be rolling 4 dice. It would be better to move that Human non-career bonus to something you'd use more often, like Perception or Deception, both of which fit with your concept while still keying off your Cunning stat.

2) Right now, it looks like you intend to use all of your XP (including the +10XP bonus) for talents and force powers and won't have enough starting credits to buy even a basic blaster rifle, thus rendering your 1 rank in Ranged (Heavy) useless until you pick up a rifle from your opponents, or one of your group members hands you their spare.

Thus, I would just suggest thatinstead of the +10XP option, you choose the "+5XP and +1000 credits" option. This extra money allows you to start with a basic blaster rifle* for sniping purposes. You can strengthen that aspect of your character by putting that one rank in Piloting (Planetary)** towards your second rank in Ranged (Heavy), as I previously recommended. This allows you to start out as a strong sniper (2 Ability+2 Proficiency+Aim Boost vs. 3 Difficulty), though you would have to drop one of your talents in order to fit the lower XP total.

*The SKZ is good if credits are an issue, but its Crit rating of 4 is suboptimal for a long-range shooter. The basic blaster rifle may be 300 credits more expensive, but it starts with a Crit of 3, which is far easier to achieve when you're rolling against 3 Difficulty.

**You said your group will start with a light freighter, but are you starting with any kind of speeder? If not, then Piloting (Planetary) will end up being used significantly less often than Ranged (Heavy).

I'd say get rid of Toughened (you shouldn't need it early on) and add a rank of Survival as Survival is likely going to be the Skill you use for setting an outdoor Ambush. Keep the Ranged Light because you're going to be using your side arm more often on civilised worlds.

Okay so I amended this. I did a mix of both of your suggestions...I went with the +5 XP and + 1000 creds option. I bought a Rifle and a I think I'm liking how this is set up now. I'll buy a rank into survival asap but for now I feel like this is a good start up.

Knowledge (Xenology)-

Piloting (Planetary) -

Piloting (Space) - 1

Ranged (Heavy) - 2

Survival-

Vigilance- 1

Coordination-

Stealth- 1

Human Level 1 Career bonuses

Cool- 1

Ranged (Light)- 1

(all my levels are free)

Talents:

-Expert Tracker- 1

Force Powers:

Sense

With the credits I plan on buying a light blaster pistol (300) and a Blaster rifle with a sling (1000). I will get some heavy clothing (100). And then I have another 100 to play with over some stimpacks and other small things. I'll ask if my father's journal could be some form of holocron (maybe its locked for something, who knows?!).

I think this looks good now!

If anybody has any more suggestions I'd still love to hear them, or if you have any burning ideas about where would be cool to go from there.

Looks good, but note that Heavy Clothing only costs 50 credits, so you actually have 150 credits left after weapons and armor. Though I suspect you'll end up buying a Utility belt first and foremost, to put all the other small things in.

As for where to go from there, it's essentially down to which aspect of your character you want to improve. Though, since you're sure you're going Ataru Striker, it might be best to first go straight to Dedication to bring your Agility up to 5 (passing Soft Spot on the way). Since you're starting from the Expert Tracker talent at Tier 1, this would be worth 85XP more*, or about 6-8 sessions given the regularly expected XP rate.

After that, you'd need to check where you are in terms of getting your lightsaber. Essentially, once you reach Dedication in the Hunter tree, you need to determine if your next 50XP should go towards Intuitive Shot and Force Rating (still in the Hunter tree) or if that same 50XP should now be used to buy into Ataru Striker, go straight for Ataru Technique, and buy 1 rank of Lightsaber.

---

However, if you took Sense for the defensive capability as previously recommended by someone else, then clearly your first 10XP (from finishing your first session) should go towards the first Control Upgrade with the Ongoing Effect, as that is the talent line that provides the defensive bonus. Whether you go beyond that tier first or go back to your Hunter spec immediately, is up to you.