Is there a way to help another PC with their force power? If I have 3 FR, can I help someone with only 1 when they use a force talent? Maybe even combine our efforts to have 4 FR?

Hmm...there's no way per RAW, but it's a cool idea, so let's see if we can't cobble something together.

I would say that if both characters take their action to use the power, they can activate upgrades as needed to try and achieve the desired effect. However, nothing happens until enough upgrades have been activated.

Example:

A party of three Force users are being attacked by a squad of for AT-ATs. They want to pick the walkers up and hurl them into the chasm that is long-range away. Total, they need 4 Strength upgrades activated, 2 Range upgrades, and 2 Magnitude upgrades. Each of them takes their action to make a Move power check. They each must activate the basic power, and then any additional points they spend can add upgrades to the group check. So if someone has 2 Strength upgrades and manages 3 Force Points on his Move Power check, he can take care of the heavy lifting, while someone else spends points to activate the Magnitude and Range upgrades needed.

Obviously, if someone doesn't have any range upgrades, they can't help activate them. And if the group was trying to throw the walkers at someone for damage, all three would need the Hurl upgrade, or else they can't actually assist in what the group is trying to do.

Does that make sense? I think that should work. Maybe someone can try it and see how it does!

I was think outside of combat to make things easier. Example might be two PCs are meditating, one with 3 FR and the second with 1 FR. The second tries to use Forsee. He might use the 3 FR of this ally to roll Forsee, as they are both meditatin together.

We have two Emergents in our AOR group as part of an elite military team.

As they are limited to 2 Force dice by my house rules, I do allow them to combine their powers, using something akin to Absol's suggestion above.

It might kinda get overkill with the F&D characters with 4 or 5 FD though....

Ah. Well personally I don't see meditation as a group activity, but if you do I would use the same process.

So if the two of them are connecting their minds and trying to have a shared vision, let's say our master goes first. He rolls 4 Force points, spends 1 to activate the base power, two to activate Duration 2 twice, and the last one to activate Strength 2 once; our vision so far reaches 4 days into the future, and has 2 details.

Then our Padawan goes. If he gets at least 1 point he can join the vision, and if he gets a second he can activate Strength 1, adding a third detail to the vision.

I'm trying to relate it to assisting with skill checks. You use your Intellect but the assistors mechanics rank 2.

I guess I forgot to say in that Forsee example the master doesn't have the force power Forsee. Same example could be made with other force powers but if a Sage didn't have Move but wanted to help his ally catch someone whose falling.

Hmm. Well, once again, I personally don't see how that could work. If the Sage has no idea how to use telekinesis, how could he assist someone in using telekinesis? The best I can think of would be to, as his action, he can add a number of Force Points to the assisted character equal to half his Force Rating (rounded down). But I'm not sure about that.

The problem with trying to mirror normal assisting in Force assistance is that normal skill checks are two-tiered, so assistance can be given by replacing one of the acting character's tiers with your own, or, if yours are universally worse, you just add a Boost Die. And every character, whether trained or not, may attempt any skill check.

The Force doesn't work the same way: it's single-tiered, there's no Boost Die equivalent, and if you don't have the Force Power or talent in question, you are literally unable to attempt to use it until you buy into it. So for cooperation with the Force, we have to try a different tack.

Would an action to assist with 1 force dice added to their pool be balanced?

I see no reason why certain force powers can't be combined, it was in the CW show.

There was a part where a toydarian was captured and he knew how to save asoka, three Jedi combined their powers to force the information out of him but couldn't overcome their natural resistance. (Anakin waited till the jedi masters had left and used force choke to break him instead).

I think there was a similar scene with cad bane as well.

The nightsisters wouldn't bother to form covens if they couldn't help each other.

I suppose, but it doesn't make much narrative sense, scaling-wise. If a FR 1 character, someone barely cognizant of the Force and who struggles to perform basic tasks with it, can add 1 die to an ally's check, why is a Grandmaster with FR 5 unable to provide greater assistance? That's why I would always use 1/2 FR, rounded down, instead of a flat number, because it allows for nuance between someone who is skilled providing assistance and someone who isn't (similar to skill checks, which you've said you want to emulate). Whether you would want that to be 1/2 FR in Force Points or in Force Dice is up to you. Personally, if I couldn't use the system is described above, I would do Force Points, and require the assister to have at least the basic power of what the assistee is attempting.

Yes, this would mean that if you have FR 1, you can't assist with the Force, but that makes sense. You can barely fumble your way through using it yourself, there's little you can do to actively assist someone without getting in their way.

I see no reason why certain force powers can't be combined, it was in the CW show.

There was a part where a toydarian was captured and he knew how to save asoka, three Jedi combined their powers to force the information out of him but couldn't overcome their natural resistance. (Anakin waited till the jedi masters had left and used force choke to break him instead).

For that, I would simply make it a combined Discipline check like normal (highest Discipline plus highest Willpower in the group, with a Boost die for everyone else participating), with each participating Jedi needing to successfully activate the power via their own Influence Power checks to be able to assist. If they succeeded as a group, then they could individually spend extra Force points from their power check to activate their own Duration upgrades to help make the Mind Trick last longer.

Well, the times that we see Force users helping, it's basically depicted as two of them attempting the same action at the same time. Both of them lifting a heavy object for example. So just "using the other guys FR pool" seems to go against the precedent we've seen in things like Rebels, and I think they did it Clone Wars? I know I saw it at least once in the Clone Wars mini series made by the guy who did Samurai Jack.

I would most likely roll with what Absol197 said, and let them share force pips to try and activate all the upgrades they need to accomplish whatever. I would require both of them to have at least the basic power. Thus, letting the less skilled at Foresee for example, simply activate the power, and the other person can spend points on the upgrades. But all regular rules would apply, in that if someone hasn't bought any upgrades they can't take advantage of them.

Another option, would be to allow assistance on the Discipline check that might come up for the Force use. Sure it doesn't always happen, but if you're trying to fight say...an Inquisitor (Nemesis), or any other time where it would be contested (and thus require Discipline), helping on that check would be useful too. For example, my 2 players, one is FR 2, and has a lot of Move upgrades, but she doesn't have Discipline as a career skill, nor has she put any points into it (yet). She can easily burn pips to pick up big stuff, but if I need her to aim, she's going to be in trouble with her low dice pool for Discipline. The other player however, does have a high Discipline, and Move. So they could help that way instead if you want.

Honestly, I'd probably work both. It costs both of their actions for the turn, they can share pips as needed, but both must have at least the base power to help. Only the person who has upgrades can activate them, and they can combine their dice pools per RAW for the Discipline check, if it's required for the power. I would also slap on a strain cost to both parties, as this is somewhat tricky, and outside the RAW.

How would you handle the initiative order though? Say the order is :

1 PC

2 NPC

3 NPC

4 PC

This could cause problems if the other player is further down the order. Thoughts? I was thinking just saying "you can only do this if there are 2 PC initiative slots next to each other. But that might make it really hard to ever accomplish, since I don't think there is any way to alter the initiative order after combat has started?

Sounds a lot like a Force Power to me.

Sounds a lot like a Force Power to me.

What does?

Adding your strength in the force to someone else's attempts to use the force.

While this may not be problematic when the PCs are at Force Rating 1 or 2, allowing them to simply pool their Force dice into a single check gets much more problematic when the PCs start reaching Force Rating 3 or higher.

That said, if you are going to allow the PCs to "pool their efforts," I'd strongly suggest limiting it so that each assisting Force user only provides a single Force Point as part of the combined check, and that only if they successfully generate any Force points when making their own Force power check to activate the power in question. And if the assisting PC winds up having to take strain and suffer conflict to convert a dark side pip into a Force point, then the primary PC suffers that same strain and conflict. This in addition to needing to have at least the basic effect of whatever Force power was being attempted.

For those powers that involve a skill check (opposed difficulty or otherwise), if the Force user is providing a Force point then they don't get to provide any other assistance. So for the example of trying to use Influence to mind trick a particularly strong-willed individual, the assisting Force users can either help with the opposed Discipline check or provide a Force point.

The reason for limiting as much as I've suggested is that you generally don't need huge amounts of Force points to generate impressive effects; it's only when you've not really invested XP into a given power that you really need oodles of Force points to trigger those upgrades multiple times. Generally speaking, you can get pretty solid results with only a couple of Force points, maybe three or four for the bigger effects. And with a party of 3 or more Force users, it could very well get to the point where the PCs are always using combined Force power checks to pull off incredibly powerful effects that XP-wise they're not meant to accomplish, resulting in the game becoming very unbalanced. FFG took a lot of pains to keep Force users from absolutely ruling the roost as has occurred in all the prior Star Wars RPGs, so I'd be very cautious about upsetting that balance.

Ehh... I'm not seeing it.

Look at Count Dooky vs Yoda in Ep 2. They throw some stuff around, shoot lightning back and forth a bit, and then Dooky says "It is obvious that this contest cannot be decided by our knowledge of the Force."

Force Rating is one measure of your "knowledge of the Force", meaning it reflects your understanding of how to manipulate the Force around you. If you have FR 1, and someone else has FR 10, they can't "give" you that knowledge. That's something you have to learn on your own.

So... I agree with the folks above who've said that you could team up on tasks where you each apply your Force abilities to the overall problem. Like several people trying to pull a Star Destroyer out of the sky. Unless you're Force Unleashed guy, you're not going to do that by yourself. And even if several friends "believe in you" or clap their hands cus they believe in fairies, that's not going to make you any stronger with the Force. But each of them could exert their own measure on the target, and together make something greater happen.

But no, I do not see any situations where FR 10 person can just loan out some of their dice to FR 1 rookie and let them go crazy with the sudden rush of power.

I can sort of see someone "investing" some of their power into someone else; Palpatine did this with Mara Jade, imbuing her with a quantity of his potency, and knowledge of some Force abilities, as well as maintaining a connection with his Emperor's Hand, and by doing this, he maintained a powerful minion, but one who remained indebted to him. While hanging out in Imperial Center, a certain amount of his power would be unnecessary, especially as he was still concealing his abilities from most people, but through his Hand, the Emperor's power still maintained a long reach, and he made sure she never became more powerful than he wanted her to.

This is a semi-unique scenario, to me, however. It also worked because the Emperor wasn't there, with her, and because he could rescind that power at any point, leaving her beleaguered, if need be. Some of us also believe he used this ability to augment Anakin, in his final battle with Tyrannus, and certainly on Luke, to help him fight the vastly more knowledgeable Darth Vader, though your own mileage on that belief might vary. I don't see it being particularly useful in game, however, as I don't think the game wants us to have the mentor we occasionally see say "well, I'm staying here, while you go do whatever, and NOT train here, with me, but don't worry, I'm going to commit two of my Force dice to you, allowing you to use them like you had two more dice. I probably won't be needing them, while I just sit here, and drink." He's a bit Rahm Kota, apparently. I don't see several people, even powerful individuals, really pooling their potential well, personally. Take the Galen Marek scenario; even if you were powerful enough to affect the SD, AT ALL, you aren't really pulling it down, and if you got three other Galen Marek-analogues to assist, you'd each be pulling in possibly conflicting directions, or might fail to effect. Lots of little things that make "collective casting" seem unlikely. Also, and possibly the simplest, I don't think the system is really prepared for it. At the risk of using a bad example, and one that makes me look dumb, back in '02, I ran my first game of Mage: the Ascension, and I allowed the players to combine their Sphere ratings, in order to build "group spells", if you will. It was sort of necessary, and they still had their regular Arete, and limited Quintessence (this all makes some sense if you have played M:tA, or other White Wolf games, I hope), but it still gave them some oomph that went silly, beyond what their XP reflected they should have, and if you build the encounter on the number of players, and their relative power, this throws it off. Even if you have one, or more, standing still, "meditating", nothing says they were going to be big in the combat, anyway, or that they share a similar knowledge of powers, or faith in their effectiveness. Oh well, I'd say don't do it, that this system seems to know how to scale the Force power in it, but to each their own, and good luck.

At the risk of using a bad example, and one that makes me look dumb, back in '02, I ran my first game of Mage: the Ascension, and I allowed the players to combine their Sphere ratings, in order to build "group spells", if you will. It was sort of necessary, and they still had their regular Arete, and limited Quintessence (this all makes some sense if you have played M:tA, or other White Wolf games, I hope)

Seriously though, even if the Emperor was able to do that with Mara... That doesn't mean that every PC needs to be able to do it with every other PC on a whim. Sometimes there are things that happen solely b/c the Power of Plot calls for them. We don't need to stat out every Deus Ex Machina and McGuffin. =)

And sometimes, individual characters do need a thing that sets them apart, one of those "how do they?" things that other people can't replicate. I think that's occasionally a fault of the RPGs, when we say "how?", in an effort to simply duplicate a feat we liked. When I was young, and SSDs were only 5 miles long, as opposed to the 25+ miles long? that they are, now, the Emperor's ability to use Force lightning was almost unique; a supreme dark side skill, showing that he was able to draw forth the the Force, itself, as a visible weapon, and harm his opponents with it. It wasn't electricity, and it wasn't something any Sith, or Dark Sider, could do, just because they were with the dark side. Then, somewhere along the way, maybe when KOTOR happened, it became almost common, if you will; proof that one had embraced the dark side, and Dooku could use it, every Sith in KOTOR could probably use it, Vader couldn't, but it was more likely his metal hands, than any lack of skill; it wasn't even really special, anymore. In the RPG, they started with it as a feat, and it was a high-end feat, but then it became a more attainable feat, as most games didn't get to that level, and then it became a skill, like other Force powers, and then a power you could buy, with no restrictions. Sort of sad, really. Similarly, I'm sure people wanted to know how Darth Nihilus ate worlds, or Darth Sion didn't die. Anoyone with a "special power" had it made, and anyone could take it. In this same 90's time frame, Force Healing was rare as roc's teeth, and only Clighal, Admiral Ackbar's niece, I believe, was known to have the power to heal other people. In Legacy, Cade's similar ability with the Dark Side is seen as unique, too; otherwise Darth Krayt could've found someone else, even with the Force on the decline. The list continues.

If Palpatine did the thing with Mara Jade, and the material says he did, then I'd say it's special to him. Sometimes people need to keep things that make them special, well, special. Corran Horn couldn't use telekinetic powers in the books, as a flaw of his genetics, or some such (the Halcyon bloodline), unless he first absorbed energy, such as blaster fire, with the Force, first. That doesn't mean we need rules for players to learn how to dissipate energy, to fuel their use of Move Object. Like Bkoran said, sometimes it should just stay Power of Plot.

I like that in FFG its not unreasonable for a Force User to be powerful with a single Force Power, but to master multiple costs a boatload of xp, at the expense of other things.