Hypothetically speaking... lets say there was a guardian character with the warden and soresu defender and armorer specs with 4 ranks of defensive stance (critical injury resulting in repulsor fist is responsible for 2 ranks of defensive stance, 1 from the repulsor fist,1 as a "bleeding out" scar talent from AoR forged in battle last page), and another 2 upgrades to incoming attacks from a doubly upgrade sense ongoing effect, with armorer and upgraded deflective armor he's got 3 black dice from armor going into the pool, so against melee attacks from an opponent would be facing 4 red dice and 3 black (at a cost of 4 strain per round).

now with that kind of defensive pool there are good odds of a despair PLUS 3 threat being rolled, which would technically be enough to activate both overbalance (from warden) and parry-improved (from soresu defender)

But here's the question: is it legal to activate both overbalance and parry-improved in response to the same attack. Narratively, it makes sense to me: the guy takes a swing at you, and you hit him back hard enough that you stagger him, but I'm asking about raw.

Like I said, the build is hypothetical, the character is much more likely to be guardian:warden/niman-disciple/exile or warden/niman-disciple/soresu defender, or warden/niman-disciple/shi-cho-knight or warden/niman-disciple/emergent (loving the "force of will" for this character, starting attributes are B3 A3 I2 C3 W3 P2 with all dedications dumped into willpower)

The character concept is shaolin monk meets jedi and before you ask I HAVEN'T SEEN ROGUE ONE YET SO NO SPOILERS and two I'm converting a 4th level d20 RCR character that I originally played in summer 2012, so it is not based off of any character from Rouge One.

niman disciple gives 2 ranks of defensive training which because of the repulsor fist is always active, but the niman-technique, draw closer, force assault combo is just awesome... visualize a jedi/shaolin monk combining telekinesis, kung fu, and a lightsaber yanking an opponent forward who somehow manages to dodge/block the lightsaber strike but the shaolin-monk-styled-jedi connects with an open palm punch (a refluffed force assault move with 1 strength, 2 range, and 1 hurl upgrade) that knocks the opponent back from engaged to medium (or long range), the jedi/shaolin monk stands up straight out of the crouched position, moves his right leg back (the lightsaber is in a reverse grip in his left/forward hand) and using his right hand he motions "come"/"again' to his opponent. That is just an awesome visual for me, and it fits so well with the character that I originally created back in 2012.

here's the level 4 d20 RCR character sheet (he was on the fastest path to get the defensive throw feat, the nearest FFG equivalent is the overbalance talent that only appears in the warden spec, which is kind of sentinel like, by the way sentinel was an archetype in d20 RCR, released in Jedi Counseling 81 basically the consular class for the first 4 levels but switch some class skills and bonus feats to fit the flavor of sentinel better)

here's the tentative FFG starting build (75 xp per earned level x 3 level ups = 225 xp) , why 75 xp per level, in RCR d20 you got 1 attribute increase every 4 levels and in FFG you get 1 dedication per tree, each tree has 300 xp worth of talent in it 300 xp/4 levels = 75 xp per level, and in d20 you get the first level for free so 4-1=3. I figure I might be shorting myself some XP for an "honest conversion" (you got skill points with level ups in RCR d20) but 225 puts it in the ballpark of what the GM said he's thinking of giving us (specific number xp not provided yet, but "somewhere in the vicinity of knight level" hinting at a little more xp and a little more credits, the campaign would probably start in September, I'm the current GM but my wife is pregnant with our first child so one of my players is going to assume the GM mantle)

The quick answer is yes as long as you get at least 6 threat / 2 despair, or 1 threat and 3 despair on the combat roll against you, and the target is engaged with you (not necessarily a given, but it is likely for a melee check, but there are some melee weapons with a range of short iirc)

You could use Counter Strike from Shien too, for a total of 8 Threat, 3 Despair or some combination there of.

As long as you have the necessary amount of advantage, threat, triumph, or despair, you can activate as many different effects as you want.

Now, getting both Overbalance and Improved Parry to trigger is going to require some definite luck of the dice, even if you've got the odds stacked heavily in your favor by jacking up your melee defense and seriously upgrading the difficulty of your opponent's combat check. But if the necessary dice results do happen, then you're free to spend them to trigger both talents.

If I was aiming to consistantly activate overbalance/improved parry, I would probably...

baneful gaze, max out Corc (means they are less likely to hit, but more dispair)
Misdirect (has upgrade that adds to threat)
Sense (Could work, but then with potentially 7 upgrades on a check + whatever defence dice, it's probably a super solid defence anyway.)

So can you guys suggest RAW for PCs ways to get a lot of setback dice added to every incoming melee attack (and lots of difficulty upgrades)? So one offs would be nice against the occasional nemesis, but i'm looking for something that would every melee attack made against the character without a huge expenditure of strain every round 2 or 3 strain per round is ok, 4 is pushing it. Committing 2 or maybe force die is a great way to pay for this.

Does superior reflexes (as in the talent in the bottom right corner of force sensitive exile universal spec) stack with defensive training.

Right now it looks to me like the best choice of specs for pulling this off is

Warden/niman-disciple/shi-cho-knight (shi cho knight would provide improved parry and a defensive training) which means at a cost of one committed force die and 2 strain per round the difficulty of incoming melee attacks would be 3 red and 3 black. And if I need to get it to 4 red I can collect 2 more Defensive stance as scar talents.

Edit actually I think getting one more copy of defensive stance as a scar talent might give me the best bang for the buck... one committed force die and 3 strain for 3 red 1 purple and 3 black

The general opinion (I think) is that a player can only generate defence dice from one of four sources; a Weapon, armour, talents (which do stack) and environmental bonus's (e.g. picking situations where it is disadvantageous to attack. Defensive training nagates any defence dice obtained from weapons I believe, but I think it would stack with superior senses.

To be honest though I think your character is starting to look very boring if you are investing three trees into him being a fighter; yes he can fight really well with a lightsaber/fists, but what else does he actually bring to the table? It is very possible to over commit to a concept and make a fighting machine. It's why I never really like to see any "jedi" characters in campaigns I play in; no one ever seems to pull it off right without either being a lawful good paladin, or Jedi temple temple.

Or crazy old men, I've had 2 campiagns that featured 7 crazy old men in total in the D20 system to the extent where we had to ban aging. XD

So force sensitive emergent might be a better choice than exile, I lose one defense die but gain force of will which means once per session the 6 in willpower can be used for any skill check which makes me good at everything.

I often find that individual setback dice often don't contribute greatly one way or another; My current PC can up his check to 3 red and a purple (4 red with a D) with up to 4/6 setback dice, depending on what is in hand and using foresee to boost inti.

That being said, another member of the party took all the defence dice weapons (two guard shatos, defensive lightsaber crystal, ends up with around 6/8 defence dice because we stack our sources) which is reasonably effective; issue is She is more of a commando character who relies on the quaility of her eapons and not her skill. So when she walked into the elite Jedi Knight Inquisitor, she was horrified when he activated duel phase and not onlly nearly cut her down, but destoryed one of the shatos as she tried to duel untrained. Needless to say, defense dice can do a lot but they aren't terribly reliable.

I often find that individual setback dice often don't contribute greatly one way or another; My current PC can up his check to 3 red and a purple (4 red with a D) with up to 4/6 setback dice, depending on what is in hand and using foresee to boost inti.

That being said, another member of the party took all the defence dice weapons (two guard shatos, defensive lightsaber crystal, ends up with around 6/8 defence dice because we stack our sources) which is reasonably effective; issue is She is more of a commando character who relies on the quaility of her eapons and not her skill. So when she walked into the elite Jedi Knight Inquisitor, she was horrified when he activated duel phase and not onlly nearly cut her down, but destoryed one of the shatos as she tried to duel untrained. Needless to say, defense dice can do a lot but they aren't terribly reliable.

Upgrades are definitely the key here rather than setback dice, but if you ask me it seems you are trying to build a one trick pony.

This is how I would go about it Warden soresu would be a way to go, esp if you are using a weapon. How I would do this is instead of throwing all your xp into starting characteristics you start with putting 40 xp in getting a 3 brawn race to 4 , take a race with coercion as a starting free rank put your free ranks into brawl and coercion from warden. Then spend your remaining 70 xp into grit, precision strike, sense advantage, confidence then overbalance

This !eaves 5 starting xp then spend 20 on baleful gaze. At this point you are 50 xp from both FR2 and dedication if that is important. Also getting enhance to brawn (30 xp is worth looking at,or 20/xp just to get to enhance brawl). Moving onto soresu defender you could get for 35xp defensive stance and 2 ranks of parry. So only 50xp from starting xp will give you for defense

Defensive Stance

Parry 2

Overbalance

Baleful Gaze

Sense Advantage

This gives soak 6 with padded armor, damage 7 with a force pike and able to parry 4 DMG with a hit.

Your further goals would be 35xp to get improved parry and and 85xp for improved and supreme parry. If you want to get supreme parry you might not worry too much about your offense

It can be quite painful to activate some of those Talents naturally in a game. I'd rather just draw my lightsaber, roll a crit and move onto the next opponent.

It can be quite painful to activate some of those Talents naturally in a game. I'd rather just draw my lightsaber, roll a crit and move onto the next opponent.

It'd be wasted on a minion but would be useful against a minion group with a large number of minions in it or nemesis something that's going to stick around for a few rounds no matter what you do.

It can be quite painful to activate some of those Talents naturally in a game. I'd rather just draw my lightsaber, roll a crit and move onto the next opponent.

It'd be wasted on a minion but would be useful against a minion group with a large number of minions in it or nemesis something that's going to stick around for a few rounds no matter what you do.

Still, paying all that XP to deal with 7-10 minions and Nemesis single-handedly, should the event arise, sounds like overkill. If you're getting heaps of XP a game, then sure, why not. But in our game, we do what all self-respecting Star Wars hero do - RUN AWAY and come back with the fleet - LOL!

(best Palpatine voice) "I AM the fleet!"