Im running the Chronicles of the Gatekeeper adventure for a group of 3 and when we started, I asked them if they wanted me to make a 4th charcter to round out the party. They all agreed they wanted one.

I didn't want to make anything that would overshadow any of the other characters, so I thought I would try a support character. We had one session, and we always allow some character alterations after the first session in case the character isn't quite what the player wanted (especially when re-learning a very different system like this one).

The DMPC was originally going to be something of a diplomat; the face of the group. But after the first session, I think the character is more like the cheerleader of the group.

She started as a Zeltron Defender Peacekeeper, buying into another tree (I forget which) to get Inspiring Rhetoric. And that was her schtick. She either granted extra maneuvers, or relieved some strain.

Now I'm thinking she should be a Colonist Performer for Distracting Behavior (which better fits the idea of the character than Field Commander) and go into Politico for Inspiring Rhetoric.

Beyond that, some ideas I had for the character down the road would be to expand into Doctor and be the team medic and also pick up Brawl and use stuff like Pressure Points and Anatomy Lessons if she ever needs to enter combat, though I'm not opposed to just being melee if that would work better.

I would like to tie her into the force story as well, so was considering getting one of the universal Force specializations and maybe even eventually getting the Battle Meditation power.

Anyway, that's all the thoughts I've had for the character, so I'm wondering if I am on track for a good support character or not. And if not, if anyone had any advice to maker her better and for any talents I might be missing.

One of the best support builds is going to be Inspiring Rhetoric and Scathing Tirade. Healing strain and dealing strain damage are very useful things to be doing, and those talents can be used in combat encounters and out. Politico is the quickest route to this, and you can maybe pick up Entrepreneur for the money and shopping assistance. A healer is a slightly different build from a face (Intellect focuses, as opposed to Presence), so if you want to go that route, build the character with that in mind.

If you really want to dig into the Force, Sage/Advisor with Influence isn't bad, a Healer/Protector for a medic. Sage/Healer is also a good blend.

General advice would be to put the GMPC on the back burner as much as possible. Seeing as the GM is also controlling the story, it's an easy rut for them to start unreasonably favoring their GMPC over the other PCs. It's good to patch skill gaps if the group thinks it's necessary, but don't let it overshadow the rest. It might be work to design the character as a friendly nemesis NPC, but that's just a thought.

The game can be easily balanced for a party of three, so you don't need a GMPC. If the PCs really believe that they need a fourth to cover a perceived skills gap, I'd say that they should try to minimize the problem with a rebuild or just roll with the punches.

On the other hand, if you absolutely have to have a GMPC, make it a droid. Droids, in the Star Wars galaxy, are little more than slaves or chattel. At best, favored droids are considered second-class citizens, at worst they're casually destroyed or mind-wiped without regard to the sentience that's being destroyed. (Wow, didn't mean to come off like a droid-rights activist there) My point is that being anything other than a fourth-degree droid can have a lot of impact on how NPCs view a character. If you make a point of self-deprecating comments - "Please don't melt me down, Master! I'll try harder next time!" - it will not only keep you and your GMPC humble, it will reinforce your subordinate role within the party and provide some good comic relief.

Seriously, though, ditch the GMPC as soon as possible.

In case it matters, it seems like the group is leaning toward the gray/dark side (one character is openly a Sith/Dark user and used the starting morality options to take the lowered morality as opposed to extra credits or xp). From what I read of the adventure, having dark side users was acceptable, so I didn't see it as being a problem.

I didn't want to jump fully down the Force route with this character; mainly just want there to be some force involvement because of the nature of the adventure and for access to Battle Meditation. I'm thinking something like a Force Sensitive Emergent that first finds their Force calling during the adventure.

Scathing Tirade is another thing I was interested in, but wasn't sure how useful it would be. Might have to look into how strain works on enemies a little more to gauge that.

I get that a medic would usually want a higher Int, but I view this as a character who pursues it and attempts to excel at it via effort and training (i.e. Spending xp on skills, talents, etc) as opposed to someone who it comes to naturally (someone with a high Int and whose starting career/specialization was Medicine oriented). Either way, the medic side would be farther down the road.

The fact that the Colonist career had access to all the stuff mentioned so far is what attracted me to it.

If you have to have a GM character, don't make them the face. Even if your players aren't interested in doing the social stuff themselves, a GM face will inevitably result in you talking to yourself.

It's bad enough with the Out of Ashes group; the PCs are in charge of several NPCs, and they recently pulled a gambit that led to their ship-captain Rival subordinate and a Jedi Master talking over the holocomm. On-screen.

The only downside to the two-person party is the frequency with which they put me in situations where I have to talk to myself.

I read many times that the best GMPC is a droid, preferably an astromech. It can help the party in many tasks without stealing the scene, and you can easily explain ignoring him by the NPC, if necessary, because it's a droid.

Okay, to get this out of the way, including a GMPC into a group, no matter how large or small, is many times a recipe for disaster.

That said, the best option for a GMPC is a purely behind-the-scenes support character, such as a droid as Lareg suggested. Having the GMPC be the party face is a sure-fire way for the actual PCs to feel like they're the ones playing second fiddle.

If none of the PCs have invested in social skills, that may be their way of saying they're not interested in protracted social scenes. If anything, I'd suggest talking with the group (if you've not done so already) and ask them what their expectations are of the campaign and what sort of adventures interest them. It may well be that they're more interested in things blowing up and just glossing over the talky bits.

Droids can make good referee NPC's in my opinion. You can have him be shut down and recharging back in the ship when not needed, in for repairs, etc. Droidist meat bags aren't going to think much about it. And it isn't as strange, almost seems more appropriate, that the character doesn't have the full support of a player behind him, since, well he's a droid. Unless of course one of the actual PC's is a droid.

I stated in my first post that my PCs said they wanted an additional character on the team. I also said that while it was originally going to be the face, that is not now how I want it to be; I want it to be a buff/debuff support character. I like Improved Inspiring Rhetoric and Distracting Behavior for this, as well as also potentially being the medic eventually, and am also interested in Battle Meditation for support as well

My suggestion: Use an NPC, not a GMPC.

That is to say, use a character with limited stats and capabilities that does exactly what you want them to do and does not improve with any speed, rather than using the character creation rules to make a full character that gains XP and levels up like the PCs. Make a Rival NPC and give them just Inspiring Rhetoric along with a couple of ranks in Medicine, and call it good. It'll be less for you to keep track of while you're running the game, it greatly reduces the risk that you'll overshadow the players, and it keeps the door open for one of the PCs to do what the NPC does and better if they decide it looks like fun. You want to avoid distracting yourself with trying to keep track of the wide ranging abilities a PC has, and avoid even the appearance that you're favoring your pet character over the PCs.

19 minutes ago, RaizielDragon said:

I stated in my first post that my PCs said they wanted an additional character on the team. I also said that while it was originally going to be the face, that is not now how I want it to be; I want it to be a buff/debuff support character. I like Improved Inspiring Rhetoric and Distracting Behavior for this, as well as also potentially being the medic eventually, and am also interested in Battle Meditation for support as well

Just because your players think they want one doesn't make it a good idea.

You don't need one for a group of 3. The only reason to have one is if YOU as GM want one. And IF you want one as GM... well, that's bad policy. You should have plenty to do as GM and as NPCs, and be able to craft a game that doesn't necessitate a 4th PC.

If you still decide to have one, you should not have it going around the PCs where it can ever influence important game decisions. It should stay on the ship waiting to heal/repair the "Heroes" when they return.

Definitely having a PC with Social Aptitudes (like a Politico) is tantamount to having the Face. He's gonna get pulled into talk to ... well let's call a spade a spade... yourself.

Tthis is "collaborative storytelling", not "time for the GM to dictate some stuff".

13 hours ago, The Shy Ion said:

If you have to have a GM character, don't make them the face. Even if your players aren't interested in doing the social stuff themselves, a GM face will inevitably result in you talking to yourself.

It's bad enough with the Out of Ashes group; the PCs are in charge of several NPCs, and they recently pulled a gambit that led to their ship-captain Rival subordinate and a Jedi Master talking over the holocomm. On-screen.

The only downside to the two-person party is the frequency with which they put me in situations where I have to talk to myself.

No one worries about upsetting a droid....