Howdy there! I'm looking for some advice on creating my first Jedi character in FaD.

My group played Edge of the Empire a bit some months back. The campaign didn't really take off, but we all quite liked the system. Now a friend of mine has bought Force and Destiny, and will be GM-ing soon-ish.

I don't have any of the books myself, so I'm partly working from memory here and partly from what info I can find online. I'm trying to put together a decent butt-kicker with some survivability, since that's just how my group rolls.

I was planning to go with a Human, with starting characteristics...
Brawn 3, Agility 2, Intelligence 2, Cunning 3, Willpower 3, Presence 2.

...adding up to 90 XP spent, with 20 to go. The idea is to spend 10 on Talents and 10 on buying into a Force Power. I was thinking Sense, at it seems generally useful for living long enough to amass more XP. I'll probably add Influence and Foresee down the line.

I looked over the available classes, and sought out ones with Lightsabre proficiency and general swashbuckling badassery, and am left with three choices:
*Guardian-Soresu Defender.
*Sentinel-Shien Expert.
*Warrior-Shii Cho Knight.

I guess the difference will be made by Talents. Just how important is Reflect? It sure SEEMS important when you're wielding a melee weapon in a setting where most people use guns, but maybe I'm overlooking something about the mechanics.

I just embarked upon a similar exercise myself (building a survivable LS-wielder), as what I witnessed in our first F&D campaign was that the guy chopping ppl down with a LS draws A LOT of attention, our guy wasn't too well prepared - defensively - and got shot/chopped down just about every encounter. I want to be that guy in our next/upcoming F&D (actually, all books) campaign, minus the getting-shot/chopped-down part.

In my experience, blaster-fire is unforgiving (not uncommon to have 10-12 damage to soak), but of course LS's are more unforgiving (what with Breach 10). That said, blaster fire is much more common, so I would advise you to not neglect Reflect.

I chose Soresu Defender for my LS-wielder, and would recommend that spec to anyone concerned foremost with Defensice Talents. For one you can avoid the LS(Intellect) talent if you want, and still get all the other Talents. But it os also just chick-full of Defensive abilities.

I also went with Force Sense, as the left side of the tree allows you to upgrade attacks twice, eventually. Good stuff (I hope).

@emsquared It's Breach 1 actually. Breach 10 would ignore 10 points of vehicle armor or up to 100 points of personal soak which would be game breaking.

Reflect can be important if you don't plan on picking up Enhance for the Force Leap power or you don't want to spend multiple maneuvers per round moving towards your opponenets.

The character I'm converting over from D6/D20 is an Ateru and Soresu expert, as befits his stats. And both ave very versatile. That being said, given your character's high Cunning and lower Intellect, I'd recommend Sentinel Shien Expert as your starting specialization. Both Shien and Soresu are very Defense oriented, and both provide Reflect and Improved Reflect, as well as Parry and Improved Parry. But Shien relies more on cunning, whereas Soresu relies on Intellect. Shien also ads Supreme Reflect and Falling Avalanche.

Thanks for the reply, folks.

Out of curiosity, is anyone else kind of annoyed that Brawn is the stat of soaking damage, but much of the trees requires buying a Talent that makes another attribute the combat one?

I just embarked upon a similar exercise myself (building a survivable LS-wielder), as what I witnessed in our first F&D campaign was that the guy chopping ppl down with a LS draws A LOT of attention, our guy wasn't too well prepared - defensively - and got shot/chopped down just about every encounter. I want to be that guy in our next/upcoming F&D (actually, all books) campaign, minus the getting-shot/chopped-down part.

In my experience, blaster-fire is unforgiving (not uncommon to have 10-12 damage to soak), but of course LS's are more unforgiving (what with Breach 10). That said, blaster fire is much more common, so I would advise you to not neglect Reflect.

I chose Soresu Defender for my LS-wielder, and would recommend that spec to anyone concerned foremost with Defensice Talents. For one you can avoid the LS(Intellect) talent if you want, and still get all the other Talents. But it os also just chick-full of Defensive abilities.

May I ask why you went with Soresu over Shien? I've been looking over the trees on Scribd and Shien seems to be better for Reflect. Getting two in it only costs 30 XP instead of 60, and Shien is the one that gets Supreme Reflect. As you said, most of the time the character will be getting shot at.

Thanks for the reply, folks.

Out of curiosity, is anyone else kind of annoyed that Brawn is the stat of soaking damage, but much of the trees requires buying a Talent that makes another attribute the combat one?

No, not at all. None of the Form talents remove your ability to use Brawn with most lightsaber attacks. Sure, certain other talents require specific non-Brawn lightsaber rolls, but that's not an issue for me.

Thanks for the reply, folks.

Out of curiosity, is anyone else kind of annoyed that Brawn is the stat of soaking damage, but much of the trees requires buying a Talent that makes another attribute the combat one?

No, not at all. None of the Form talents remove your ability to use Brawn with most lightsaber attacks. Sure, certain other talents require specific non-Brawn lightsaber rolls, but that's not an issue for me.

I know it doesn't remove your ability to attack using Brawn, it just seems like a waste of XP if I also want to have a decent soak rating, was my point.

Thanks for the reply, folks.

Out of curiosity, is anyone else kind of annoyed that Brawn is the stat of soaking damage, but much of the trees requires buying a Talent that makes another attribute the combat one?

No, not at all. None of the Form talents remove your ability to use Brawn with most lightsaber attacks. Sure, certain other talents require specific non-Brawn lightsaber rolls, but that's not an issue for me.

I know it doesn't remove your ability to attack using Brawn, it just seems like a waste of XP if I also want to have a decent soak rating, was my point.

Well again, it's not a waste of XP if you want to use certain specific talents that require non-Brawn attacks, but even if you view it as a waste, 10 XP is a drop in the bucket.

Well again, it's not a waste of XP if you want to use certain specific talents that require non-Brawn attacks, but even if you view it as a waste, 10 XP is a drop in the bucket.

On a related topic, I forgot to ask: What is the suggested XP award for an average session?

Roughly 15-20 XP per session is fairly common.

May I ask why you went with Soresu over Shien? I've been looking over the trees on Scribd and Shien seems to be better for Reflect. Getting two in it only costs 30 XP instead of 60, and Shien is the one that gets Supreme Reflect. As you said, most of the time the character will be getting shot at.

The reason being that Shien is split between offense and defensive traits. Soresu is virtually 100% defense. In my experience, LS don't need much help with offense, but defense is a perpetual problem. Soresu has balanced Parry and Reflect (3, 3) which reflects my personal defense priorities - Reflect is probably used most, but when you need to Parry (like a LS, for instance) you want to be able to do that as well. It has both "Improved"s - so you can generate some offense from your defense. Defensive Stance synergizes well with Force Sense. It has WT and ST bumps.

Perhaps most importantly to me; I could take all of those Talents and not have to get a single Talent I didn't want, AND still keep Brawn as my primary Attribute. While Shien may have some low hanging fruit, the real expense in this game is if you have to switching Specializations a bunch - that XP is pure waste.

Basically Soresu fit my wants very well, with literally nothing that I didn't want.

Out of curiosity, is anyone else kind of annoyed that Brawn is the stat of soaking damage, but much of the trees requires buying a Talent that makes another attribute the combat one?

That's so you can play a character that is from a Brawn 1 species - who will have a stat of 3 elsewhere - and still be as effective at lightsaber combat as a Brawn 3 character.

Take the Kel Dor, for example, who start with Brawn 1 and Willpower 3. They make great Consulars.

Or Togruta, who start with Brawn 1 and Cunning 3. The Sentinel is a great career choice for them.

Or Twi'lek with Presence 3 gravitating towards the Mystic career, and so on.

For these characters - or any character for whom Brawn is not the main stat - 10XP to use their primary stat as their attack stat is far more cost-effective than spending XP to raise Brawn at character generation or through Dedication.

You may.

The reason being that Shien is split between offense and defensive traits. Soresu is virtually 100% defense. In my experience, LS don't need much help with offense, but defense is a perpetual problem. Soresu has balanced Parry and Reflect (3, 3) which reflects my personal defense priorities - Reflect is probably used most, but when you need to Parry (like a LS, for instance) you want to be able to do that as well. It has both "Improved"s - so you can generate some offense from your defense. Defensive Stance synergizes well with Force Sense. It has WT and ST bumps.

Perhaps most importantly to me; I could take all of those Talents and not have to get a single Talent I didn't want, AND still keep Brawn as my primary Attribute. While Shien may have some low hanging fruit, the real expense in this game is if you have to switching Specializations a bunch - that XP is pure waste.

Basically Soresu fit my wants very well, with literally nothing that I didn't want.

Hmm. You know, I gave the Niman Disciple a closer look, and I notice that it gets lots of defensive powers as well. I did the math on buying 2 rank in Parry, 2 in Reflect and one in Toughened, and Niman only requires 45, instead of the 70 for Shien and Soresu.

Now, I still AM leaning towards Sentinel for character reasons, as Rebellion-era Force users need to keep their heads down, but I have to admit those other two trees looks awfully tempting...

You may.

The reason being that Shien is split between offense and defensive traits. Soresu is virtually 100% defense. In my experience, LS don't need much help with offense, but defense is a perpetual problem. Soresu has balanced Parry and Reflect (3, 3) which reflects my personal defense priorities - Reflect is probably used most, but when you need to Parry (like a LS, for instance) you want to be able to do that as well. It has both "Improved"s - so you can generate some offense from your defense. Defensive Stance synergizes well with Force Sense. It has WT and ST bumps.

Perhaps most importantly to me; I could take all of those Talents and not have to get a single Talent I didn't want, AND still keep Brawn as my primary Attribute. While Shien may have some low hanging fruit, the real expense in this game is if you have to switching Specializations a bunch - that XP is pure waste.

Basically Soresu fit my wants very well, with literally nothing that I didn't want.

Hmm. You know, I gave the Niman Disciple a closer look, and I notice that it gets lots of defensive powers as well. I did the math on buying 2 rank in Parry, 2 in Reflect and one in Toughened, and Niman only requires 45, instead of the 70 for Shien and Soresu.

Now, I still AM leaning towards Sentinel for character reasons, as Rebellion-era Force users need to keep their heads down, but I have to admit those other two trees looks awfully tempting...

Remember, you aren't limited to a single lightsaber style. You can take as many of them as you want to maximize your combat effectiveness. My character, Korath, uses both Soresu and Ateru. If you're going Sentinel, I'd suggest taking Shien to start, and, later, if you wish, expand into Niman, Soresu, or whatever other style catches your fancy.

With your characters stats being as they are Shien would be your best fit. Since it also includes Falling Avalanche which is free damage if your brawny for some strain. It's especially good if you make your Character beefier in the future through Dedication.

Since your also worried about blaster fire Shien and Soresu deal with this best but Shien lets you do it for cheap through Supreme Reflect. If all else fails if you do decide to make your human a Beefcake then high raw soak is another good way stop bullets cause soak still increases with brawn increases. Niman will help you cast force powers easier though if that's what your looking for since you also have a 3 in will and you'll also be able to use lose force powers since they activate based of a discipline check. All in all the choice is yours do what you would have most fun with and help your DM tell the story you both want to tell.

Am I the only one that tries to keep/plans a PC within 2 Specializations?

I mean, it depends on how generous your GM is, how frequently your group plays, and how long they can usually manage to keep a campaign going, but say you switch Specializations twice - one of them out of career - that's 60 XP down the hole. More than 10% of what I might expect to earn after a years worth of fairly regular weekly play.

This talk of going into a specialization for just 45 or 70 XP worth of Talents is bonkers to me. If I'm going into a Spec, it's because I'm going at least all the way to a Force Rating bump or Dedication, which means I am only going to go into a Spec which has useful (to that PCs) Talents on the way down. And I'm most likely going to be picking up all the juicy things I can besides.

"Dipping" in this system is a horrible idea, as you'll soon be paying more just for the "privilege" to dip, than for the Talents you're taking out of it.

Am I the only one that tries to keep/plans a PC within 2 Specializations?

I mean, it depends on how generous your GM is, how frequently your group plays, and how long they can usually manage to keep a campaign going, but say you switch Specializations twice - one of them out of career - that's 60 XP down the hole. More than 10% of what I might expect to earn after a years worth of fairly regular weekly play.

This talk of going into a specialization for just 45 or 70 XP worth of Talents is bonkers to me. If I'm going into a Spec, it's because I'm going at least all the way to a Force Rating bump or Dedication, which means I am only going to go into a Spec which has useful (to that PCs) Talents on the way down. And I'm most likely going to be picking up all the juicy things I can besides.

"Dipping" in this system is a horrible idea, as you'll soon be paying more just for the "privilege" to dip, than for the Talents you're taking out of it.

Yyyeah, I'm not expecting a year's worth of weekly play. We sort of jump from game to game. And yes, I'd much rather spend XP to buy up Force powers than to "dip".

If your game is likely to be shorter your probably going to have a bit more fun with a character with a 4 in one characteristic and a 1 in something else. Instead of being average or a but better at everything you can have a weakness to Roleplay and get to shine brighter when in your element. So depending on your preference you could get a more varied character by going non human.

While it's nice to have at least 2 dice to roll for every skill having 4 for some lets you get away with some outrageous stuff.

Niman is good if you want to crack into the Forve Powers too, since it is the only tree with a +1 FR. But if you want to be a survivor then nothing beats Soresu, like others have said a Lightsaber is deadly on its own, modified they can get scary.

Before character creation, consider how memorable you'd like to be for this game. For example, a low-level fantasy wizard is unlikely to have easy access to those powerful spells for which that class is memorable. If you'd like to wield a lightsaber expert for a Force and Destiny game, ask yourself:

* How often do we meet, and how much XP do I expect to get during each game session?

>> If the answer is infrequently or with low experience rewards, heavily invest in a specialist who does at least one thing very, very well (read: memorable).

>> If the answer is frequently or with average or better experience rewards, more options exist.

An example of a heavily-invested specialist might be a Cerean Soresu Defender. Grab the top two rows of the talent tree, and buy skills or Intellect-based Force powers. Other examples might be a Whipid Shii-Cho Knight or a Human Executioner with a career skill in Lightsaber and a bump in Brawn. In all three examples, enough XP should remain to dabble in Force Powers, too.

With more XP to be earned, then first focus on building up characteristics, which can rarely be increased at any other time. Remember, too, how career dips cost 20 to 30 XP just to have the opportunity to get (new career skills, but more importantly) better talents. Sometimes, a characteristic bump for a similar XP cost will serve a character better in the long-run, because they start a little bit better in more skills (i.e.: difference between a 2 Cunning or 3 Cunning).

For example, the above-referenced Cerean Soresu Defender could easily dip into Armorer, within their base career (Guardian). Both careers have access to a lightsaber, and Intellect is used for mechanics skill checks used by the Armorer. Now, you become a defensive juggernaut- parry and have higher soaks/defensive ratings for the inevitable bad outcome, while still accessing talents with a lightsaber.