I'm tossing around a concept in my head for a combat heavy character that is good at both ranged and melee combat. Thus it would require strong if not high Agility and Brawn scores. I'm thinking one as a 3 and one as a 4. What species would be good for such a spread. I know the Nautolans, Sullustans, and Wookies are good for that idea. Any others?

Also ...as an aside what careers and specializations might be good. Of the top of my head I'm considering the merits of Warrior Aggressor and Guardian Warden as well as Solider Commando/Sharpshooter.

Many species could pull off a 3/4/2/2/2/2 or 4/3/2/2/2/2 spread if using a starting option for +10 Starting XP, including humans. The Whiphid in Keeping the Peace can do 4/3/2/2/2/2 and has tusks for Brawl boosting.

Nikto and Mirialan (im sure I spelled that wrong)

Species good at Brawn and Agility:

• Klatooinian (Dangerous Covenants)
• Rodian (EotE CR)
• Sullustan (AoR CR)
• Weequay (Dangerous Covenants)
• Aqualish (Dangerous Covenants)
• Nikto (Lords of Nal Hutta)
• Selonian (Sons of Fortune)
• Wookie (EotE CR)
• Verpine (Strongholds of Resistance)
• Mirialan (FaD CR)
• Nautolan (FaD CR)
• Dug (Special Modifications)

Thanks, that gives me some things to play around with. I like the Whiphid and the Nikto (love reptilian ones) as both also get brawl bonuses

I really love the Nijto but the Pres. 1 will hurt it's init right?

I'm thinking Aggressor/Marauder/Commando split.thoughts?

I really love the Nijto but the Pres. 1 will hurt it's init right?

I'm thinking Aggressor/Marauder/Commando split.thoughts?

Let someone else get the good Cool skill. That is the advantage of the group init rolls

Nikto is really solid its gives you an extra wound over the standard (noteable most brawn races have weaker racials) and a choice, also allow you to take 2 4s and Pres 1 if you want

Initative is less important in this game as long as someone in the group is a face, viglance can also be used for initative.

Personally i've found the aggressor to be less than stella, although i rushed FR 2 and focused of force leaping so your mileage may vary.

Marauder is a one trick pony, and its trick is bulldozing though blaster fire and smashing things to paste. It also doesn't get ranged heavy

Commando is solid, very few weak talents, lots of good stuff although nothing thats particulary exciting.

I’m currently playing a Besalisk with a 3 Brawn (racial baseline) and a 4 Agility (way, way above the Racial starting point). It takes a lot of effort to get the Agility that high, but you can do it with standard XP.

And I’m totally enjoying playing this character for reasons that have little to do with attribute scores, and much more to do with how his background is set up and how things have worked out in the role-playing situations we’ve been in.

Nikto is really solid its gives you an extra wound over the standard (noteable most brawn races have weaker racials) and a choice, also allow you to take 2 4s and Pres 1 if you want

Initative is less important in this game as long as someone in the group is a face, viglance can also be used for initative.

Personally i've found the aggressor to be less than stella, although i rushed FR 2 and focused of force leaping so your mileage may vary.

Marauder is a one trick pony, and its trick is bulldozing though blaster fire and smashing things to paste. It also doesn't get ranged heavy

Commando is solid, very few weak talents, lots of good stuff although nothing thats particulary exciting.

What are your thoughts on the Warden then?

I’m currently playing a Besalisk with a 3 Brawn (racial baseline) and a 4 Agility (way, way above the Racial starting point). It takes a lot of effort to get the Agility that high, but you can do it with standard XP.

And I’m totally enjoying playing this character for reasons that have little to do with attribute scores, and much more to do with how his background is set up and how things have worked out in the role-playing situations we’ve been in.

Well I know there's more to having a fun character the basic stat line, but having a 3 or 4 in those two stats makes generalizing in some area's along those lines easier. I'm sure I'd have fun no matter how I designed it ..... but sometimes it's nice to know you can pick up both a gun with Cumbersome 4 and a weapon with Unwieldy 4 and be fine.

Must admit I love the warden spec and if you play Kajain'sa'Niktos you can start with 2 in brawl / discipline / and resilience. Also if you take +10 xp you can start with 4 in brawn and willpower (all career skills but knowledge- underworld and cool fall under both these stats, if you like optimising , yyou cant ask for a better start, although id be more tempted to take 4 in willpower or brawn a 3 in the other,depending on whether you want to be a fighter (starting in the two left most columns until tier 4 talents) or the coercer ( 2 columns on the right) and then throw 3 into another characteristic, or some extra talents , skills or force powers. (Example enhance will get you another brawn via a commit effect for 30xp and you pick up enchance brawl along the way)

Can't say i'm particularly impressed, just seems too much like aggressor again.

And been right after Armourer does it no favors (Shii-cho knight eat you heart out).

An Ataru Pathfinder makes for a good Lightsaber & Ranged Light character, with lots of flexible talents and the Saber Swarm talent lets you gain Linked 2 for 3 possible hits from a basic Lightsaber in an attack. Highly mobile too. And everything is linked to Agility so you only have to focus on that one characteristic.

An Ataru Hunter (or Executioner if you can get the Seeker book) will make a great Lightsaber & Ranged Heavy character

For single spec builds Commando is great, so is Sharpshooter(True Aim!!!!), Assasin and Gadgeteer (will not be a great mechanic but so what!).

It really depends what ranged skill you want to use, what melee skill, and if you want a single spec or multiple.

For species Whiphid and Selonian both have natural Brawl weapons (although the Selonians is linked to Agility instead of Brawn)

Well I know there's more to having a fun character the basic stat line, but having a 3 or 4 in those two stats makes generalizing in some area's along those lines easier. I'm sure I'd have fun no matter how I designed it ..... but sometimes it's nice to know you can pick up both a gun with Cumbersome 4 and a weapon with Unwieldy 4 and be fine.

Oh, I totally understand. And with a 4 Agility and high ranks in all the ranged skills, my character is equally good in ground combat as he is in ship combat.

He wasn’t the only one to do damage to the Rancor that our group took down in personal-scale combat, but he did far more damage to it than everyone else combined. And he was smart/lucky to have SSB-1 Static Pistols so that all that damage went straight to Strain, so that we knocked the thing out instead of killing it. Ping was lucky that the Rancor decided to target other members of the party with its attacks, so that he could get his shots in and not be hurt.

He wasn’t the only one to damage the Vigil-class Corvette that our Gozanti came up against a few games back, but he did way more damage to it than everyone else put together. And we destroyed it. However, the other members of the party who also did damage to the Vigil-class Corvette were instrumental in being able to push it over the edge before they destroyed us. If things had gone one more round, we might have been the ones getting destroyed and not them.

Believe me, I worked hard to create a character concept that would work numbers-wise, but would hopefully also be fun to play. So far, I’ve been pretty happy.

Enforcer and Warden make a great combination. There's good combat and social stuff in both trees.

Loom, and Baleful Gaze (which also helps you get more use out of Overbalance) use just your ranks in Coercion, so no need to increase your Willpower. This will help you to significantly contribute in social encounters, even more so if you buy both ranks in Bad Cop. In fact, by leveling Coercion you will be able to make the most out of many of the talents between the two trees (Bad Cop, Scathing Tirade, Natural Enforcer, Intimidating, Baleful Gaze, Loom, and Overbalance). There's also 5 ranks of Fearsome between them.

Precision Strike with a pair of Vamblades and the Mono - Edge attachment will allow you to do a lot of different things to your opponent with only 2 advantage. Things like Staggering, pushing them to the last initiative slot, or giving your party additional Destiny Points all while allowing you to choose to remain non-lethal. Grapple is great too in order to keep your foes in tight and force those Ranged Heavy enemies to make a base check of hard to hit you, instead of backing off with a maneuver and only needing to roll against 1 purple.

Lastly, you mentioned initiative, keep in mind that you can always spend the 15-20 XP on Foresee and roll your Force rating with your checks.

Hopefully that helps.