Having started with a the guardian career.and the warden specialisation im looking for a companion specialisation that would develop the character as an investigator of sorts. A lot of specialisations came to mind and while I like the flavor of many of them they all lack something, it appears to be a hole in the current specilisations.

Example Marshal has great synergy eith Warden but as an investigator it lacks perception

Force sensitive Exile seems to have perhaps the most promise but the talents lack any direction and seem general, this is probably the best choice

infiltrator initially looked hopeful , but again lacks any "investigation" talents and perception as a career skill

And so on, so when I got down to it enforcer (leaning on streetwise but lacking perception), shadow (using well rounded but lacking any reasonable talents to go for) Force Sensitive Exile( has insight for perception and perhaps th le best or 2nd best set of talents).

So far I see a lot that makes you a good interrogator. I would have thought something in Explorer would fit, but actually no.

So I looked through the specialisations for anything that gives perception and lo I find warleader, which I initially discounted.

Leadership, perception and survival as career skills. 2 ranks of uncanny senses, careful planning, sense danger, clever solution. The ranged talents can be easily avoided or taken if you want that path, however this appears to me to be the perfect investigator when speccing from another career , anyone got any other suggestions.

I definitely think they have missed an opportunity with creating an investigative spec, (closest is marshal, but this lacks perception so its better to go explorer(scout or fringer) into marshal

Jedi investigators were a thing. My guess is something like it might crop up in the Sentinel book. On it's own, Warleader is probably your best option. Marshal is still probably the best choice for the talents. Navigator has Perception, although I don't know how that will contribute to the concept much.

You might want to look twice at Mystic:Seer or Seeker:Hunter. Neither gives perception as a class skill, but you can get Keen Eyed, Expert Tracker, and either Uncanny Senses or Uncanny reactions. Not having perception as a class skill is annoying, but not end of world ... and if it offends badly enough get the Force Sensitive Emergent or Exile, both get Perception Cheap, and both get Uncanny Senses and Uncanny Reactions twice.

Instead of picking a tree with perception I would grab Farsight and shadow.

Shadow is an ideal spec for an investigator.

From concealing your use of the force to making people forget they met you its ideal for the more sticky parts of the job.

It doesn't give you perception, but it gives you Skullduggery, for those late night break ins to find evidence.

Stealth for shadowing people and generally over hearing conversations.

Streetwise for information gathering and developing underworld contacts.

Shadow is awesome because you can get Well Rounded letting you add Perception to your career skills list, plus Shroud which hides your use of the Force. the other talents may have use depending on how you have spent xp so far.

Navigator from Savage Spirits has some great talents too; Perception skill, Swift, 2 Ranks of Shortcut & Improved Shortcut, Cheap Force Rating, a rank of Expert Tracker, Uncanny Senses. you don't need to dig far into the tree to get what you need either. Then later if your GM gets used to you navigating across planets either in cities with Streetwise or the wilderness with Survival you can get some of the talents that improve your ability to do that.

Farsight is a good Force Power for you too, it has upgrades to add force dice to Perception checks or commit Force Dice to increase your ranks in Perception, both fantastic for an investigator.

All great suggestions and all I had looked at, as I said though makes me wonder if FFG missed an opportunity, fwiw I was referring to a more traditional investigator and even my own suggestion falls down as most of the talents are force talents. While I also second the Shadow idea the talents seem more to be leaning towards stealth and not being noticed as opposed to the PC picking up or deducing things

Scholar is an interesting option too, it has Well Rounded, Knowledge Specialisation on Underworld would be helpful, Intense Focus is super handy, then Codebreaker and Researcher are great too. It's obviously not a Force Specialisation but thats not the end of the world.

Analyst is the other one thats very much about finding information and deciphering hidden meanings. Again its not a Force Spec but its got so much that bolsters a characters ability to find information.

A while back a lot of people were speculating that the Bounty Hunter book would have an Investigator spec. I think the idea was that some bounty hunters hunt information rather than sentients. It's a bit of a stretch, but not completely absurd.

Sentinel will likely have the Watchman tree which is the other Jedi Investigator/agent tree.

The Jedi Watchmen were kinda like Marshals who protected certain planets and systems rather then roaming the galaxy.

A Bounty Hunter at least needs to be able to find their bounty if they are to bring them in, for most ranks some in Streetwise, a social skill, or Survival will do the trick, and so far only Survivalist has any real focus on locating things. Whilst Investigator is probably not the correct name for the Specialisation it would fit the Career to have someone who focuses on locating those who would prefer to remain hidden.

All good ideas but the kind of spec that I envisage isnt there , something with a large focus on perception, and deduction, analyst fills the the deduction side but not the perception side, things like marshall and enforcer fill the social aspect with coercion streetwise and with marshal, there are the vigilance based talents that are useful when questioning someone, all good, survivalist has tracking but no deduction. I still think warleader or FSX are probably the two best to fiill the role and will be more than adequate shame there isnt a non FS equivalent

Edit for the record if I was to recommend someone doing this but starting with another, then colonist marshall fills most of it but dipping into something or choosing human to get perception rank is the way to go.boost int will and cunning