Actually, this is a question about a house rule I'm thinking of bringing into my game. I'm going to GM some guys soon. We've never played FFG's version of Star Wars before. I know at least one guy was thinking about a droid character. Now, I am sure someone here has already done the math and figured out a droid starts at realistically about half the XP of most other species. They really only get one additional skill over any other species (given that most species start with two bonus skills or something similar), and a lot of their other bonuses are realistically more fluffy than actual.

So, to head off complaints, here is what I was planning to house rule. Droid stats are as they are, except starting XP. As part of picking the droid species, the character also specifies the class of droid he is (first-degree through fifth-degree). Each class of droid includes bonuses to the base starting characteristics. Each class of droid also comes with a unique set value for starting XP.

For example, a class four (or fourth-degree) droid is designated as a security/combat model. As such, that droid would gain +2 to brawn, +1 to Agility, +1 to Cunning, +1 to Willpower, +1 to Presence and would have starting XP of 80 (or maybe 70). This would make class four droids roughly equivalent to Wookies or Trandoshan, but between 10 to 20 points weaker. My intention with this is to allow the Droid player to feel as though their species choice allows them to be a contributing member of the party, without threatening the traditional "beat-stick" character.

Thoughts?

But droids start out with like 175 xp

Humans are designed to be generalists

Other races are designed to be semi-specialized (I.E. a Toydarian will not be as an effective Maruader as a Wookie at char gen, but can do it, but it will be an uphill battle)

Droids are designed to be hyper-specialized with their initial 175 XP, they can easily get 1 trait to 5 or 2 to 4 and have a lot of points to spend on talents and skills.

But droids start out with like 175 xp

If you look at all the species, the average characteristic value is 2. To raise a droid to the average it will cost 120 XP, leaving him with 55. Droids are in many respects like humans. Humans get one rank in two non-career skills for free. Droids get one rank in three career skills for free. Humans have 110 XP to start, and after buying themselves up to "normal," droids have half that.

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Of course, that's not how I would do it. If I were going to play a droid as a PC, I'd likely take Bounty-Hunter (Assassin) with two free ranks in Ranged (Heavy) and then 7 additional free career skills at rank one. I'd get 10 additional XP for +10 additional Obligation. I would then bank most of it, maybe raising Brawn by a single point. If I survive the first adventure, even if I get no additional XP, I could immediately raise Ranged (Heavy) to rank 5 and two other skills to rank 4, or I could have 4 skills at rating 4, one of which being Ranged (Heavy). Or I could blow it all on talents. However you slice it, I would completely blow past all other characters in terms of raw ability. Maybe not survivability, but heck, as every glass cannon knows, if you're fast enough and deadly enough, your survivability doesn't matter.

Now, is that cheese? Yep, it's full Roquefort. As GM, that's another reason to bring droids more in line with other species. By effectively making droids into five distinct "species" based on their class, they'd still be specialized. Each classification of droid would be naturally specialized towards a specific job. And this way, a droid player wouldn't feel cheated by the rules, and also wouldn't feel compelled to reach for the cheese grater.

They also get a rank of Enduring, don't need to breathe, eat, sleep, are immune to toxins/poisons and mind altering Force powers. Droids get plenty and don't need tweaking.

And(this may just be me) but can function fine in a realspace Vacum.

I play it that way as well. Some get a lil hyper literal and don't allow it, but I don't see any special upgrades listed for astromech NPCs and they climb around the exterior of moving ships just fine.

They also get a rank of Enduring, don't need to breathe, eat, sleep, are immune to toxins/poisons and mind altering Force powers. Droids get plenty and don't need tweaking.

I agree. My we have 2 droids in our party. One is a droid heavy/merc and he is, for lack of a better descriptor, Mr. Shooty. He's focused on one thing. Shooting things. He does it well and he does it often (even when we would rather he didn't) and he's done it well since we started. The other is an Astromech engineer and again... he does it well beyond what you would expect. Humans are generalists. Droids are specialists. You could make them a generalist but you'd be taking away what makes the character good.

You take either of my friends characters and put them outside their comfort zone Role wise and it's like watching someone trying to run uphill backwards with a blindfold on. Painfully humorous at best.

But droids start out with like 175 xp

If you look at all the species, the average characteristic value is 2. To raise a droid to the average it will cost 120 XP, leaving him with 55. Droids are in many respects like humans. Humans get one rank in two non-career skills for free. Droids get one rank in three career skills for free. Humans have 110 XP to start, and after buying themselves up to "normal," droids have half that.

.

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Of course, that's not how I would do it. If I were going to play a droid as a PC, I'd likely take Bounty-Hunter (Assassin) with two free ranks in Ranged (Heavy) and then 7 additional free career skills at rank one. I'd get 10 additional XP for +10 additional Obligation. I would then bank most of it, maybe raising Brawn by a single point. If I survive the first adventure, even if I get no additional XP, I could immediately raise Ranged (Heavy) to rank 5 and two other skills to rank 4, or I could have 4 skills at rating 4, one of which being Ranged (Heavy). Or I could blow it all on talents. However you slice it, I would completely blow past all other characters in terms of raw ability. Maybe not survivability, but heck, as every glass cannon knows, if you're fast enough and deadly enough, your survivability doesn't matter.

Now, is that cheese? Yep, it's full Roquefort. As GM, that's another reason to bring droids more in line with other species. By effectively making droids into five distinct "species" based on their class, they'd still be specialized. Each classification of droid would be naturally specialized towards a specific job. And this way, a droid player wouldn't feel cheated by the rules, and also wouldn't feel compelled to reach for the cheese grater.

What's your actual goal? To make it impossible to min-max droids? Then why give that ability to other species? Getting one skill to rank 5 to skill after first session can be done with humans also. And then human still has better characteristics than droid. (human all 2, droid 2,2,2,1,1,1). But, after all, this game is not about which PC does most damage (or talks best, or...), but about how cool stories player can make up. Unless you want otherwise, but then there might be better systems for you.

Anyway, one trick ponies are dull characters, and I always advice PCs to steer away from them. Personally I like the possibility to highly customize droid character (and not being restricted to five templates). Any species can be min-max, or made as complete fully rounded character. Is your intent to house rule droids coming from actual need to house rule them, or do you just want to house rule them. Also, I'd advice you get some experience about system before you design your droid templates, so you find out how the system actually works and what's best way for your group to balance things. That way you also notice the potential problems with system.

BTW, our current campaign is two sessions in (I'm GM), and PCs haven't made a single attack. It's been very fun. I tend to use the rule, hit them in the dump stat, so PCs are fairly balanced characters. We've been playing together more than 20 years, so we know each other fairly well.

Bottom line to remember, even if I seem to oppose your idea: If you want droids to have five (or whatever) templates, and your PCs are OK with it, then go for it. And have fun.

Actually, I would say that jack of all trades, master of none characters are dull, because they eliminate the "hit them on their dump state" factor completely and create characters who are either not in their comfort zone in anything or even worse are in their comfort zone on everything.

And btw, the OPs build is terrible as he could just as easy raise agility to 5 with his droid and have those dice on tons of rolls, not spending xp on characteristics at char generation is usually a terrible move. Having 4 skills at 4. but all characteristics just at 2 means just as many dice as the guy who has his relevant characteristics at 4 and his skills at 2, but the guy with the focus on characteristics has tons of growth potential after his first adventure and even after his twenty's one.

This

They also get a rank of Enduring, don't need to breathe, eat, sleep, are immune to toxins/poisons and mind altering Force powers. Droids get plenty and don't need tweaking.

and this

And(this may just be me) but can function fine in a realspace Vacum.

plus:

• you can have a Brawn of 1 but still install 6 Cybernetic Enhancements.
• general equipment can be built into the chassis, its not hidden but "its just my droid" from the party face is a great excuse to take all sorts of equipment into places its not normally allowed.

SO here are a bunch of Droid characters as examples, the idea is to create a theme to play to then utilise those previously mentioned benefits to make the character. What would you do if a Droid Bounty Hunter is after you, they never stop to sleep, eat, and can follow you anywhere? Or you need to fix the ship, but the problem is on the outside and you don't have time to suit up for space? there are a lot of themes to build your Droid PC around, and their characteristics allow you to really work with that.

HM-6T6 , "66" is a CEC heavy maintenance droid. strong, tough, a Mechanic with 2 Intellect because when your a Droid fixing a capital ship in dry dock you get told what to do. With more than starting xp the character will increase the number of ranks in Mechanics and Piloting, then get the Driver Specialisation to gain more ranks in Fine Tuning.

C4-7CH , "Catch" is a bounty hunter who never stops chasing you. When he catches you he ejects from his ship, fly's to yours with jump boots, cuts through the hull then knocks you for a home run. Its a Knight Level character with extra credits because i was experimenting, so there are 2 Cybernetics not available at character creation, although combined with Cyberneticist you could probably get one of them.

These next five are all the Droid only crew of a ship, they are pirates, they are nasty, they hate meat bags, and these are all Knight Level too. I modified the ship they fly, The Sunrey , to suit their pirating ways too. They fly without atmo in the ship, tractor in their target, cut open the captive ships hull, vent the atmosphere, then leave the crew that survive in an escape pod.

B3-TR (do what he says) : is the enforcer of the ship, with 2 HH-50's and a Coercion of AAPP this B3 battle droid gets their captives to do what he says

R2-N8 "Nate" is the brains and leader of the group, Strategist and Tactician combine to make for an interesting mix.

F1-L4Y is a dog shaped Survivalist Bounty Hunter, with a Heavy Blaster Rifle and Grenade Launcher built into its chassis! like any good dog this one can track you anywhere on a planet, in the city or in the wilderness, then when they catch up your going down hard.

R0-K33 is the Pilot, a Pit Droid Rigger who fixes Slap and flies the ship, in fact it can fly dam near everything.

SLL-4P "Slap" is the true Mechanic of the ship, with Brawn 5, Athletics 3 and Mechanics 3 it can fix dam near anything, anywhere, anytime. But its the Soak 9 and WT of 19 that makes it walking cover for everyone else thats the real kicker.

Actually, I would say that jack of all trades, master of none characters are dull, because they eliminate the "hit them on their dump state" factor completely and create characters who are either not in their comfort zone in anything or even worse are in their comfort zone on everything.

And btw, the OPs build is terrible as he could just as easy raise agility to 5 with his droid and have those dice on tons of rolls, not spending xp on characteristics at char generation is usually a terrible move. Having 4 skills at 4. but all characteristics just at 2 means just as many dice as the guy who has his relevant characteristics at 4 and his skills at 2, but the guy with the focus on characteristics has tons of growth potential after his first adventure and even after his twenty's one.

Any character can be dull in game, be it one trick pony or jack of all trades. It's more about player than character. We could also argue about jack of all trades having only dumb stats.

Maybe we can agree that every GM/group has to find what works for them. And, be it droid or organic, player can try to min-max it.

IMO, PC which has both strengths and weaknesses is most interesting.

No one pays attention to droids.. In our first 'campaign' the droid was repainted numerous times and placed in strategic postions - even though IT SPLIT THE PARTY!!! OH MY!!

IIRC the droid has been a security, maintenance, domestic and ship tech,,, a few Deception rolls or Destiny point use and BOOM you have an agent on the inside.... sorted