I was thinking about this, as a thought experiment, but decided I'd ask before taking the time: Anybody know the fewest specializations needed to get all the skills as class skills? Or, rather, the career/specialization combinations that require the least xp spent on new specializations?

I recall that there was a conversation about this some time ago, but I can't remember what it was called...

Yeah, they definitely solved this issue months back, but I don’t remember the details.

I was surprised at how many specializations were required.

Of course, that’s assuming that you want to get them all as “class skills” for your spec(s). If you’re willing to put points into them as non-class skills, you can do that with any skill in the game.

So then the question is what are the minimum number of points required to get all skills up to rank 5, regardless of whether they are class skills or not.

As more books are released the answer likely changes.

I don't think it covers all of them, but Performer, Politico, and Scholar from Colonist cover a lot, plus two of those have the talent that lets you select two more class skills of your choice. I mixed those to make a very effective deep cover ISB defector in one game. Just need to pick up Medic and I think the only non class skills will be combat skills.

You might not even need Scholar if your character is a Cerean.

Also, if I recall, the Recruit universal spec was pivotal in most of those get-all-skills builds. Might want to check that out.

Here you go:

I've crunched some numbers and I think that Cereans will get you to all 35 skills (including Lightsabers) quicker. Someone want to check my math on this? By going Cerean and swapping Medic for Doctor I'm able to cut out a 30xp Well Rounded and the 10 xp to pick up Medic as a non-career spec. My new total is 235 xp.

0 Cerean - Knowledge (Core Worlds), Knowledge (Education), Knowledge (Lore), Knowledge (Outer Rim), Knowledge (Underworld), Knowledge (Xenology), Knowledge (Galactic Civil War)
0 - Colonist - Charm, Deception, Leadership, Negotiation, Streetwise
0 - Doctor - Cool, Medicine, Resilience
20 - Recruit - Athletics, Discipline, Survival, Vigilance
25 - Basic Combat Training, Vehicle Combat Training, Tactical Combat Training - Brawl, Ranged (Light), Gunnery, Piloting (Planetary), Melee, Ranged (Heavy)
40 - Saboteur - Coordination, Mechanics, Skuldugery, Stealth
40 - Politico - Coercion
30 - Politico - Well Rounded
50 - Scholar - Perception
30 - Scholar - Well Rounded
235 xp total

Well Rounded skills:
Astrogation
Computers
Piloting (Space)
Lightsaber

Edited to add: If you really don't care about 1 skill (such as Lightsabers), or would be willing to take the Unmatched Expertise talent Superior Reduction to work on a non-career skill, then you can swap in Archaeologist for eith Politico or Scholar. By doing this you would replace the 30 xp Well Rounded with a 5 xp Well Rounded and 10 xp Non-career spec tree tax. That would drop the total to 220 xp for 34 career skills.

Here you go:

Thanks for the assist, Desslok. I've been out of this game for a while (group switched to D&D and I've been having issues accessing the forums) so I was quite surprised to see the email notification that I was quoted.

As commonly mentioned whenever this conversation comes up, there is little need to know all skills. Unless they've added new Talents or Signature Abilities that I'm not aware of, the only reason to know everything would be to use the Unmatched Expertise Signature Ability. Otherwise, there is no benefit in knowing skills as opposed to buying them as non-career skills, outside of saving 5xp per point.

If you're looking at maxing out the ranks, then it becomes cheaper to do it with some as non-career. Scholar (as the last spec) with Well Rounded costs 80xp and nets you 3 skills. 5 ranks in those skills would have a 75xp non-career tax, so it would be cheaper to skip Scholar and max them as non-career. Politico (as second to last spec) with Well Rounded costs 70xp to know 3 skills, so it would be 5xp more to max them all through non-career.