Depending on the type of PI, I could recommend going Enforcer. Here's a post I made in a similar thread a year ago.

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/138776-how-to-best-build-a-film-noir-protagonist/

I was going to say Politico, but Jamwes has beaten me to it.

Well, um, Politico anyway.

Leave it to the guys with the Noir style Cthulhu avatars to be on the same page.

I actually kind of like Enforcer myself for some of them.

The more I look at Enforcer the more I like Enforcer as a Mike Hammer type tough guy PI and it makes me want to rebuild my first EotE character. My first was a Force Sensitive Exile Politico who used Influence (Control upgrade) to boost Scathing Tirade. (Didn't play long enough to get Sense Emotions too.) Never attacked with a weapon, just let my allies do my dirty work for me. This Enforcer character would get his hands dirty.

Enforcer's PI type skills are Coercion, Knowledge (Underworld), and Streetwise. What more do you need to be a gritty PI who solves cases through spit, gumption, and being tougher than the other guy? Talents like Intimidating and Fearsome make you a force who can scare the bad guys into giving you information. Talk the Talk lets you "know a guy" to know every Knowledge skill for the low price of a Destiny Point. Ranged (Light), Brawl, Melee round out your fighting. Athletics, Resilience, and Vigilance would also be great skills for the tough guy trope. Discipline for knowing when to keep your trap shut. Piloting (Planetary) so you can get around town and solve the crimes. Eventually take the Unmatched Protection signature ability to crank the tough guy feel up to eleven.

I'd mix in Politico for Charm and Deception, there are times when even a tough guy needs to lie to the bad guys (and cops "helping" him on the case) or sweep the dame off her feet. While you have them quaking in their boots with Fearsome you can Scathing Tirade them to do some (strain) damage and pile on more black dice. Other than Cool and Perception, I really can't think of any skills that you're really missing out on and buying a couple non-career ranks in those skills wouldn't be terrible. If it were me, I'd buy up obligation for extra starting XP and make a human with a 3 in Brawn, Agility, Presence, and Willpower. If you can't swing that, then to maintain the tough guy trope, I'd probably let Agility just be a 2 and just buy up Ranged (Light) or any other agility skills you might need. He's tough, not agile.

I think this would work until the Bounty Hunter book comes out. I'd bet that there will be a PI type of career in that book.

As for background, I'd make the character a grizzled war vet. Ever notice how it seems that everyone in Noir is either a tough guy or has a tough guy streak running in them? Noir was big in the mid-late 40's to early 50's. You know, just after WW2 where everyone was in the army and trained how to fight and kill. That's why every PI, bouncer, bartender, insurance salesman, ect knows how to fight and use guns. Seeing war molds a person and can harden their convictions. A hard boiled gritty PI has seen some stuff in their life. This is their motivation and why they fall on their Obligations, especially drinking.

As this is Star Wars, you could do an older character who fought in the Clone Wars. You could also do an ex-imperial who got sick of the system and struck out on their own. To use Mike Hammer as a template, he was a war vet who left being a cop to go private because the laws and system didn't fit is take on justice but yet still has at least one buddy cop who he can rely on for information when needed. Being an ex-Imperial could have the same setup. Still has that one "good guy" buddy on the inside that can be leaned on for information while giving limited information back in return. A PI doesn't get paid (as much) and an ego isn't fed if the cops catch the bad guy first.

This link to a Noir style slang dictionary might help get you in the mood for playing the character: Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang

https://www.miskatonic.org/slang.html

I hope this helps.

It's funny no one (including me) has talked about the Spy career, one that should have this exact spec in it! Just shows the gap the Spy book will hopefully fill.

I do love the infiltrator, but it's talents are so heavily melee combat, it does have all the right skills though, so you could definitely make it work. Unfortunately I think it's the design of the talent tree that turns everyone away, it's very limiting.

Eh, it does have a decent amount of Stealth to it as well, it's just all down that right column, and then along the bottom heading left. It's honestly a pretty decent way to be sneaky, without devoting an entire talent tree to something like Shadow, or Thief. Plus, it gives you some boosts to combat, without having to invest in combat heavily. Ferocious Attack, is an easy way to be quite brutal with melee, by simply spending a little strain to upgrade your combat checks. And, if you want to be the "good guy gumshoe", you can do it all as strain damage with Stunning Blows, and simply knock out the people you fight. Then you can sneak in, steal the information you were hired to get, and sneak out over the groaning bodies of the guards you knocked out. Honestly I think it's got a pretty darn good balance between combat and stealth.

After really looking at it, I'm thinking Spy:Scout/Marshall is the way to go.

Again, letting the fluff go and just looking at the skills and talents...

(man, I may have to throw together a character sheet for this setup to keep handy, either as a character or NPC).

After really looking at it, I'm thinking Spy:Scout/Marshall is the way to go.

Again, letting the fluff go and just looking at the skills and talents...

(man, I may have to throw together a character sheet for this setup to keep handy, either as a character or NPC).

Same! I went and made one straight away This was my interpretation of a Coercive Detective, happy in the Underworld or Wilds. Galex has 150 extra xp to his name, i haven't done equipment yet, probably a swoop, a pistol, some restrainers, and a concealing cloak.

In our games, we've had one character turn into a great private detective. He's a bounty hunter survivalist.
It wouldn't be my first option, but the character turned out great. There's a a whole guildhouse that concentrates on getting their acquisitions taken alive and they also track missing persons and apprehend serial killers etc.

Granted, he doesn't have stealth skills, but has the ability to track people, which is always great.
Also, having a whole house of bounty hunters doing the same thing as you do, is quite a boon if you want to do research and find people!

So we finally came around to making the actual character.

He went for the Colonist Marshal for his main Career.

If you're interested:

165 XP

Human

Colonist Marshal / Force Sensitive Emergent

Obligations

Responsebility 15 for the want to help those in need.

Betrayel 5 for falling out with the Empire, but also believed to be dead by most.

Characteristics

2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2

2 Soak | 12 Wounds | 13 Strain

Cool 1

Coercion 1

Leadership 1

Pilot (Space) 1

Streetwise 1

Deception 1

Negotiation 2

Vigilance 2

Ranged (Light) 1

Talents

Hard Headed; 1 Grit; Steetsmarts; Insight; Uncanny Senses; Indistinguishable

Gear:

Defenders Sporting Blaster Pistol: Ranged(Light), Dmg 5, Crit 3, Range Medium, HP 1, Accurate 1.

Basic Remote Droid

Commlink

Electrobinoculars

Handscanner

Datapad

Backpack

Utility Belt

Glow Rod

Rations 3

Again thanks to everyone for the great advice and discussions.