So a player of mine (I am GM) has asked how he can play a EOTE archaeologist but still get a F&D force specialization, because he can't find a F&D career that matches the Explorer archaeologist. Is there a way to do this? and what are similar specializations and careers in F&D source books to the said Explorer archaeologist?

From Explorer, or any of the careers in Edge of the Empire or Age of Rebellion, one must pick up either the Force Sensitive Exile spec (from Edge of the Empire) or the Force Sensitive Emergent spec (from Age of Rebellion). They are both considered universal specs so they won't cost an extra 10xp as if buying a spec outside of your career.

When they pick up one of those, they are gifted with Force Rating 1, After that, the PC can pick up Force powers or other Force specs as desired.

Shadow, a Sentinel spec from the Force and Destiny core book, might complement an archaeologist well. Something down the road from the Mystic or Consular careers might fit as well since they both offer Knowledge - Lore as a career skills. Sage, actually, from the Consular career in the FnD core book is decent. But there's no real Archaeologist equivalent in the known FnD specs at this time.

So a player of mine (I am GM) has asked how he can play a EOTE archaeologist but still get a F&D force specialization, because he can't find a F&D career that matches the Explorer archaeologist. Is there a way to do this? and what are similar specializations and careers in F&D source books to the said Explorer archaeologist?

There is nothing stopping them from buying a F&D spec, but you don't get the initial FR from the spec, it comes from choosing a F&D career as the main career. Now if you wanna hand wave that with a house rule it's hardly game breaking.

That said there are a number of specs that are Knowledge skill focused and any would complement the Archaeologist nicely.

There are two ways to become force sensitive if your starting career isn't:

1. Pick up the Force Sensitive Emergent or the Force Exile universal specializations on your character, which grant +1 Force rating instead of career skills when you first take them. (These are found in the force sections of EotE and AoR)

2. Pick up an F&D specialization that has +1 Force Rating at the bottom of its spec tree and develop it to that point.

Option 1 is a hell of a lot cheaper, unless you are really set on one particular class.

Seekers are the most survival and wilderness themed Jedis, and include several trees that specialize in navigating terrain. The Seek force power from F&D is also a great fit for a character who specializes in finding things. (Though DMs need to be a bit careful with that one so it doesn't spoil adventures)

To echo the above opinions, I'm a big fan of starting with EotE/AoR characters, picking up one of the Force Sensitive Universal specs, and then buying into F&D careers. Both the FS specs are extremely valuable in their own right, and (just MHO here) the F&D careers feel more specialized, something that you'd get into once you've been in the real world for a while.

There are two ways to become force sensitive if your starting career isn't:

1. Pick up the Force Sensitive Emergent or the Force Exile universal specializations on your character, which grant +1 Force rating instead of career skills when you first take them. (These are found in the force sections of EotE and AoR)

2. Pick up an F&D specialization that has +1 Force Rating at the bottom of its spec tree and develop it to that point.

Option 1 is a hell of a lot cheaper, unless you are really set on one particular class.

Seekers are the most survival and wilderness themed Jedis, and include several trees that specialize in navigating terrain. The Seek force power from F&D is also a great fit for a character who specializes in finding things. (Though DMs need to be a bit careful with that one so it doesn't spoil adventures)

As a slight edit to this, per a strict reading of the rules Option 2 is not viable. Characters without a Force Rating cannot benefit from Force talents. Ranks in the Force Rating talent as found in the various F&D specializations are Force talents, and therefore can't be benefitted from if you don't already have a Force Rating.

However, it is a very reasonable house-rule to ignore this bit of minutia for the sake of the story. I just wanted to make sure we're all on the same page .

There are two ways to become force sensitive if your starting career isn't:

1. Pick up the Force Sensitive Emergent or the Force Exile universal specializations on your character, which grant +1 Force rating instead of career skills when you first take them. (These are found in the force sections of EotE and AoR)

2. Pick up an F&D specialization that has +1 Force Rating at the bottom of its spec tree and develop it to that point.

Option 1 is a hell of a lot cheaper, unless you are really set on one particular class.

Seekers are the most survival and wilderness themed Jedis, and include several trees that specialize in navigating terrain. The Seek force power from F&D is also a great fit for a character who specializes in finding things. (Though DMs need to be a bit careful with that one so it doesn't spoil adventures)

Actually, that's not entirely accurate. Unless you take either Emergent or Exile, you cannot gain the Force Rating if you don't start in a Force Using Career. Now, saying that, the F&D equivalent to the Explorer career is the Seeker. My advice if he wants to play a Force using Archeologist is to take the Seeker: Pathfinder spec and the Explorer Archeologist spec as a second spec. It'll be cheaper than taking Exploerer, Force Sensitive Exile and then a Force using spec.

I have to second that.

Okay thanks guys

As a slight edit to this, per a strict reading of the rules Option 2 is not viable. Characters without a Force Rating cannot benefit from Force talents. Ranks in the Force Rating talent as found in the various F&D specializations are Force talents, and therefore can't be benefitted from if you don't already have a Force Rating.

Hm, didn't consider that. It's so much less effective to try and get your force rating entirely from bottom of the tree talents than to simply buy Exile or Emergent that I wouldn't have thought they need a rule against it. Especially given that both Exile and Emergent are incredibly good trees for just making your character slightly better at everything, and adding them to a chracter that started in a force career is actually a pretty good move if you have the XP to spare I don't really see an issue with letting people grab force ratings from anywhere. Exile and Emergent are the best place to get them anyways.

We have an Indiana type force user in the group I'm with.

How lenient is your GM?

A holocron can have a lot of cool powers defined by the GM's imagination. It's possible that a holocron can grant a character Force Rating 1 (just once, to one being, and then the holocron burns out). Once you have FR 1, you can make full use of FaD specs.