Hey gang. I am a fairly new player and was wondering if anyone had any advice on a viable build based around Unity Assault?

It seems to me that the powerful Force abilities targeting allies (Battle Meditation, Heal, and Protect) require a high Force Rating to reliably activate and a HUGE investment in XP, especially considering the Peacekeeper's Force Rating talent is on the opposite side of that tree in the bottom row. Then there is the fact that the Heal power is best used with the Consular's Healer spec, seemingly requiring 3 specializations (the 3rd being Sage or Seer for extra Force Ratings and Force is my Ally) to maximize that power's effects.

I am fascinated by the concept of a Force Wizard that uses Unity Assault to trigger opportune Battle Meditation, Heal, or Protect, depending on the situation, but doing so reliably seems like it would require many hundreds of XP. Am I missing something? Has anyone found an efficient build for this kind of character? Many thanks!

The Healer spec actually has little to no synergy with the Heal force power, as Healer talents key off of making a Medicine check while the Heal power merely checks your ranks in Medicine for a few upgrades. At best, you might be able to combine Knowledgeable Healing, Surgeon, etc. with the Control upgrade that lets you make a Medicine check to remove a Critical Injury if you can get the GM to accept a loose interpretation of "a Medicine check to heal wounds." So that's one less specialization you need to worry about.

Certainly, though, to get a lot out of Unity Assault you'd probably want a tree with two Force Rating talents, given the force point requirements of powers like Heal and Protect. That said, even just FR 2 is enough to get useful effects out of Unity Assault if you're willing to dip into the Dark Side pips a little. It's also worth considering the Hermit spec from Savage Spirits as an alternative, as while The Force is my Ally is definitely a useful talent, Hermit gives you two FR talents and Survival of the Fittest, which lets you substitute your Survival skill ranks for your Force Rating once per session.

With the exception of Manipulate, which would be pretty limited, you've hit all the Force Powers that can be used with Unity Assault. And even with another power thrown into the mix, I can't imagine a good build where this talent is a cornerstone.

Unity Assault just isn't very good.

I'll just use the powers you listed because I don't know Manipulate off the top of my head.

Battle medication is the least expensive, costing 25 XP for the base power, a Range upgrade, and a Magnitude upgrade. You'll want all of these because it's unlikely that you'll always have the person you'd want to buff right on top of you. But it still requires you have Force Rating 2 to purchase, which can be expensive depending on your build and character concept.

Next, Heal: This one is an XP hog. Force Rating 1 to buy, making the least of the three, but it takes a lot of XP to most of it. How much you heal is based on your Intelligent characteristic, so you'll want a minimum of 4 to make it worth it. Base power is 15 XP, plus 15 XP for a Range upgrade, and 5 XP for a Magnitude upgrade. Putting the power cost at 35 XP. And then if you wanted to use all these upgrades at once to get the most out of it, it'll take 4 Force Points to activate.

Finally, Protect, this has the same basic problems as Heal but worse. How much you protect someone is based off your Willpower, so you'll need to buy that up to get the most out of it, and it's an Average(2 purple) Discipline skill check to use. So there is a chance you could still fail. It takes Force Rating 3 to purchase, making it cost that much more XP. Base power cost 20 XP, 5 XP Range upgrade so you can get to short range, if you want Magnitude it's 15 XP because you have to go through a 5 XP Strength upgrade. And just to do the base power with the Range upgrade it cost 4 Force Points. So unless you're lucky with your 3 Force Dice, you're going to have to use black pips consistently to use the power.

To reiterate what I said at the beginning, Unity Assault isn't good. It's not something you aim for, it's something you spend 25 XP on when you already have one of the above powers and you have nothing else to spend XP on but don't want to bank to buy another specialty.

Another great Force power to use with Unity Assault is the power from the Guardian’s own sourcebook, Suppress. It targets your allies with an effect that resists incoming Force powers; handy against that gang of Inquisitors!

EDIT: Aww, come on, Austin! You're not giving the talent it's full credit! Just because Heal, Protect, Suppress, and Battle Meditation are always useful with Unity Assault doesn't mean they're the only ones you can use! Move could be used to reposition an ally; if an ally is affected by a fear effect, maybe you could use a Mind Trick (from Influence) to remove their fear, while the mind trick lasts; Misdirect could be used to create a giant illusory arrow pointing at something important you want an ally to notice. There's plenty of possibilities, you just have to be creative!

Thanks very much for the input, all!

@Kaigen, your suggestion of looking at the Hermit spec brings up an interesting rule question:

Assume a PC has Force Rating 2 and all the upgrades to get the Duration upgrade in Battle Meditation, along with a Survival rank of 3. Could the PC activate Battle Meditation on the previous turn, then use Survival of the Fittest to commit 3 Force dice to activate the Duration upgrade on the subsequent turn? Or would the Duration expire at the next round when Survival of the Fittest no longer applies?

Related side question, is that how the Duration upgrade works, or does the PC roll the check, spend the Force points, and commit the dice (even if they generated Force points), all in the same action?

Survival of the Fittest lets you treat your Force Rating as equal to your ranks in Survival for the purposes of a since Force check. Committing Force dice is not a check, so it doesn't interact with SotF.

You're essentially correct on how the Duration upgrade works, but it might help to think of committing the Force dice as an Incidental action tacked on to the end of the action rather than something simultaneous to it. You roll the check, choose the effects based on how many pips you rolled, and then can commit Force dice to extend the duration. It doesn't matter if you used pips or not on any given dice, because committing isn't about those specific dice so much as your Force Rating.

Thanks for the clarification! One final follow-up. Does that mean that if I spend dark side points and decrease my allies' Willpower, that effect is also sustained if I activate the Duration upgrade?

Yes. Yes it does. The moral of the story: don't be evil, kids! It turns the people around you into weak-willed automatons that will follow you every order without question.

...Wait, that's not really a deterrent, is it? Hmm...

The Willpower decrease already lasts until the end of the encounter, but if the character is using the duration upgrade to maintain Battle Meditation between encounters, then I would rule that the Willpower penalty is likewise sustained (I might also rule that the Force user cannot recover strain while sustaining, as per the sidebar on pg. 282).

I would definitely say that to get the most out of Unity Assault with FR 1-2 your going to need to be comfortable using whatever shows up on the Force Dice. You will also need to focus on a single force power and minimal upgrades.

Move and Heal are the two that most spring to mind for me as being useful.

Using Move to get your Lightsaber freak buddy in close before he has to burn Strain would be great, so great I can't believe more characters don't do that. Otherwise putting them in cover, or removing them from an engagement are all great ideas. It would require 3 Force Pips though; Basic, Range and Strength all need to be activated, so without FR 3 it's more hit and miss.

For Heal you could reliability activate the basic power and range upgrade with FR2, having the control that allows automatic strain recovery is amazing and will probably work half the time. It's a decent amount of health recovery too if you have a 4 intellect. Strength upgrades could be activated often enough that buying those would be worthwhile too.

But here's the thing, a FR of 2 in this system is actually still just the beginning of the power curve, probably in the 3-500xp range (assuming a broad character and not 1 trick pony). 500+ is where the real "combos" come alive, it's what's needed to get to the bottom of 2 specs along with a few extra skill ranks and a fleshed out force power. 800 seems to be a real sweet spot with characters; lots of skill ranks, 2 mostly full spec trees, a couple of Force Powers and possibly a signature ability. Obviously numbers vary from character to character and everyone has a different idea on what should be prioritised, but don't be afraid to aim high, it's what this system is built for.

So what would I make as a character? Well this would be a talent to aim for after 300 XP, your better to improve the other aspects of the character before picking up the talent. I would have Warleader as the initial specialisation, focus on Ranged Light and Leadership. Pick up Peacekeeper almost immediately, 185xp later your FR is 2 and you have Unity assault. Then 60xp on Move to get everything in the top 3 rows, for flexibility. The rest gets spent on skills and Warleader talents, heading toward that trees Force Rating. You can shoot, lead, and move stuff as required. Probably a decent backup Face and Co-Pilot too, what else though depends on the species and choices made during creation.

I just had an alternative idea for the Peacekeeper, a character focused on Strain control. 4 Intellect with 3 Presence, skills focused on Brawl, Initiative, Discipline and Leadership. 200xp on getting FR 2, Enhanced Leader, field commander and Unity Assault amongst other talents. 20xp on Enhance for the Brawl control, then 60xp on Heal/Harm for the top 2 rows. Finally a couple extra ranks of skills, Brawl and Leadership up to 3 if possible.

This character leads from the front, brawling to cause srain damage, using Field Commander when needed, and Healing the nearby PC's when it misses in combat. Soresu would be a great second spec, just picking up the Technique and Parry/Improved Parry before moving onto a spec with another FR talent, Protector probably for the Medicine skill, or Armour.