As the title says, I have a question about combined force power checks, as described on page 280 of the core book:

Which skills are used? I know that Discipline seems to be important, but is it up to the GM to determine this? Let's say you have a sneaky Sentinel Shadow with the Move power and fine manipulation upgrade. Could he then use Move with Skulduggery to pickpocket someone at a distance? Or is only Discipline used for all Force Powers?

Cheers,

E.

As is stated in the core books, Discipline is the DEFAULT skill for using force powers. Per the GM's discretion, if they deem it reasonable, they could allow a player to use another skill along with their Force Power check instead of Discipline.

Groggy Golem is correct on this. And the idea of using Move with Skulduggery to pick someone's pocket? me like the way you think.

Just a quick heads up though, that you would also require the Mastery - fine control upgrade.

Yes, that's the idea.
How bout taking this further. Would you, for example, allow using Move and Brawl to hit someone?

Initialiy I would have said no, and the one of the first order66 episodes covered this in one of the first dev answered Q&A sessions saying move and combat skills couldn't be combined, however this was way before the Mastery upgrade existed with the release of F&D core, so if they had the mastery upgrade, then, sure, why not, they could use a combined combat check/force roll to adjudicate the results, although I would definitely call for upgraded checks as its one thing throwing punch or firing a blaster when you are the combatant, but another when trying to pull it off at range and perhaps not able to have the same line of sight. (Although this would be a viable use for farsight with duration upgrades to set up trap where you could remote fire a blaster while you are hidden elsewhere.

Personally, only if you're moving another character's arm to hit their own face, constantly yelling, "Stop hitting yourself!"

For real though, I wouldn't allow Move to encroach on what the Enhance power already does, an upgrade of which allows you to roll your Force Rating with your Brawl checks, spending Force Points as either Success or Advantage.

As for Move with Brawl, the extra pips would not count as successes, but rather just allow the character to throw a regular punch at a distance. I'm not sure if I'd allow it myself, but since I'm starting a new F&D-campaign soon, I want to give it some thought, at least.

There certainly would be additional Setback for the check to make a Brawl/Melee/Lightsaber check at Range. There is also the problem of not holding the weapon so you can't Parry/Reflect yourself. The fine manipulation upgrade doesn't move the object through range bands, so you would also need to either use an improvised weapon or take a turn using basic Move to get the weapon to the target. Then there is the problem of being disarmed and having to rely on Move again to get the weapon back. I think most weapons would cause their normal damage, but improvised weapon rules would definitely be used a lot.

If the character wanted to make multiple attacks I think I would require them to use the Two Weapon Fighting rules instead of the normal Autofire rules, and they can only hit as many times as they have weapons to use (unless linked weapon or some other applicable talent).

Also... Conflict. This adds another element to the question of awarding Conflict. The character is protecting their own interests in fighting from afar, removing risk from themselves by using the Force. That sounds rather selfish and Dark to me. I would not be awarding Conflict every time, but if it becomes a regular thing to do and is a first resort then there will be a couple of extra points coming the PC's way.

Actually you could parry/reflect yourself while making lightsaber checks at range if you are also using magnitude for additional light sabers or melee or brawl.

Magnitude with fine manipulation would be multiple weapon fighting rules as opposed to autofire.

With ranged if you are smacking the person with your lightsaber using move and he is shooting at you or anyone else you should be allowed to reflect the attacks.

I use the simple rule of can you show the lightsaber is in the path of the attacker to determine deflecting.

Parrying is no good unless the person has another lightsaber they kept in reserve for such things.