Opinions?

In approximate order the top choices are

Martial artist, marauder, doctor, warden, shi cho knight, infiltrator, commando, gadgeteer, enforcer, assassin, sharpshooter, bodyguard, mercenary soldier, gunslinger

I get that sharpshooter and gunslinger seem like odd choices but they have deadly accuracy and lethal blows

I would probably put Executioner in there too somewhere around Warden and Shi-Cho

You missed aggressor

Performer too, probably somewhere around Bodyguard

As far as I'm concerned Marital Artist / Doctor combined makes the most powerful brawl spec, because the combination of Pressure Point and Supreme Precision Strike is kind of absurd. You can pluck limbs off people like you're picking apples at that point. Not super strong against non-living opponents, but it's not necessarily bad for a character to have some kind of weakness.

Supreme Precision Strike is thankfully a once per session only talent so it's not too powerful.

7 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

I would probably put Executioner in there too somewhere around Warden and Shi-Cho

6 hours ago, syrath said:

You missed aggressor

6 hours ago, Richardbuxton said:

Performer too, probably somewhere around Bodyguard

You are both correct about those, here's the revised list I struggled a little with whether to put performer before or after bodyguard

Martial artist, marauder, doctor, warden, shi cho knight, infiltrator, executioner, commando, gadgeteer, aggressor, enforcer, assassin, sharpshooter, bodyguard, performer, mercenary soldier, gunslinger

By the way martial artist + shi Cho knight is a pretty brutal combination because of all the ranks of parry plus the other stuff (e.g. multiple opponents).

soresu defender + Martial artist + doctor ... unarmed parry + supreme parry + improved pary + pressure point is probably the best 3 spec unarmed fighter build...

Sense withe defense upgrade, optionsll, action/maneuver spent of defensive stance, supreme Parr + unarmed parry to pay for 1 count it 1 strain, and pressure point to make improved parry awesome

I know assassin has stealth as a career spec, I'm assuming infiltrator does too any others?

Probably commando

@TheShard you should be able to get answers to your question here

https://community.fantasyflightgames.com/topic/222644-spectalent-sheets/?page=5#comment-2647493

Marauder is a solid melee specialization. Mix it up with Martial Artist and you have a devastating combatant.

The Doctor's Pressure Point talent is not to be overlooked, but going by RAW it would have limited applicability (none really, IMO) where Precision Strike is concerned, since it can only deal strain damage. Ie., no ripping arms off as a doctor/striker You'd get more mileage out of a Marauder/Doctor combo, just to increase your raw damage output; or perhaps a Martial Artist combo with Marauder or Infiltrator (for Frenzied Attack ), so you could increase the chance of getting Triumphs for those glorious Supreme Precision Strike talents. To accompany this build, I might also suggest Recruit, which is notable for its Creative Killer talent. Combined with Martial Artist, you can have a truly versatile crit machine, using things like caf mugs and shoelaces to potentially trigger Precision Strike (or the Improved version, or perhaps Supreme version if what you're using could be classified as a Brawl weapon) more often.

I also like @EliasWindrider 's suggestion of picking up a specialization with lots of ranks of Parry , even for characters who aren't Force sensitive. That will make your Martial Artist/melee combatant that much more dangerous by being that much harder to take down. This is especially appropriate for the damage-focused builds, giving them a solid option for strain expenditure (while the crit-focused builds would arguably benefit more from Frenzied Attack).

Combine Shi Cho Knight with Niman Discipline. And you get 3 black dies worth of defense. Good stuff...

3 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

soresu defender + Martial artist + doctor ... unarmed parry + supreme parry + improved pary + pressure point is probably the best 3 spec unarmed fighter build

Not sure I would agree there -

3 hours ago, awayputurwpn said:

The Doctor's Pressure Point talent is not to be overlooked, but going by RAW it would have limited applicability (none really, IMO) where Precision Strike is concerned, since it can only deal strain damage. Ie., no ripping arms off as a doctor/striker

I don't think there is any rule that says you can't crit with stun damage, in fact there are specifically some stun only weapons in the game that have a crit rating.

As far as I can tell the rules say you can trigger a crit when you deal damage that exceeds the soak rating of the target, which usually gets read as "If you inflict any damage at all you can crit". (Though I suppose you could read it as "You need to inflict more points of damage than the soak rating of the target" which would actually mean you need to double the targets soak rating to crit unless you have pierce or breach.)

The rules leave it up to the GM and players if critical injuries would make sense in a given situation when dealing strain damage.

If you as a player could convince me as the GM that your doctor, using pressure point, should be able to rip the arms off the target in question, then sure I would allow it but all things being equal, I don't think such a narrative makes much sense.

Page 223 core book has a call out on criticals due to

2 hours ago, syrath said:

Not sure I would agree there -

Green Nikto

Brawn (4) 6 / Agility 2 / Intellect 2 / Cunning 2 / Willpower 4 / Presence 1

WT 25 / ST 15 / Soak 11

Skills

Athletics 1 / Coercion 2/ Coordination 5 / Survival 1/ Streetwise 2 / Vigilance 1/ Brawl 5 / Ranged Light 1

Talents -

Armor Master / Deadly Accuracy (Brawl) / Dedication (Brawn *2) / Enduring 1 / Feral Strength 3 / Frenzied Attack / Grapple / Grit / Ironbody 2 / Jury Rigged / Lethal Blows / Martial Grace / Parry 2 / Precision Strike / Precision Strike, Improved / Tinkerer / Toughened 5 / Unarmed Parry

Equipment

Armored Robes - (Superior mod, room for cortosis upgrade) - Reinforced Cortosis Gauntlets (Superior mod / Weighted head, jury rigged and tinkered

Base damage for Brawl 19 (*) with 2 strain increased to 24 . Brawl pool of YYYYYG, upgradable to YYYYYY for 1 strainspend. Crit Rating of 1 (due to green nikto ability and iron body)

Calculation of brawl is - Brawn 6 +1 (weapon) +2 (weighted head) +1 (Jury Rigged) + 1(superior) + 5 (deadly accuracy) + 3 (feral strength) = 19 to either strain or wounds

You may think that the xp spend here is massive but not really , the total xp spend here is - starting xp 110 - Earned xp 580

Also note that this can be improved even further as you start spending xp , as there are lots of goodies on all three trees that I haven't picked up

Edit just to give you an idea what you can do here is this , Strike your opponent and pay 1 strain for frenzied attack , giving you a 6 yellow pool for attacking. You then pay 2 strain to increase the damage by using Martial Grace, giving you Base damage 25 + successes (of which you should have many). If you trigger a crit (all you need is 1 triumph or 1 advantage , and with 6 yellow on the table this is very likely , bear in mind you get an auto advantage of the superior of the weapon ). Now you pay 2 strain and choose to trigger improved precision strike. Now choose overpowered , which allows you to strike once again , and if you need to trigger it again, you can also use martial grace . So you have spent 7 strain and have done 50 dmg - 2*soak from either strain or wounds. So 30 dmg against even a 10 soak opponent. If you go get supreme precision crit , this gives you a good chance of doing serious damage against those 25 soak opponents.

Apart from martial artist, it's unclear to me what other 2 specs are in your 3 spec build.

Also there is more to the quality of a build than how much damage you can do with 1 punch. A large part of my criteria is how survivable a character is against lightsabers, opponents who deal strain damage that ignores soak, multiple opponents and minion groups. If the other guy goes first exceeds your strain threshold then the 50+ pts of damage attack that you don't get to make is pretty irrelevant.

4 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

Apart from martial artist, it's unclear to me what other 2 specs are in your 3 spec build.

Looks like Gadgeteer and Marauder. Gadgeteer is the only really viable provider of Deadly Accuracy for a melee-focused combatant. Assassin and Sharpshooter wouldn't really do.

Sorry marauder and gadgeteer , it also has 11 soak, along with being able to parry 4 points of damage. On the martial artist tree it is one talent from getting coordination dodge , on the gadgeteer it is close to getting improved armor master and on the marauder tree its close to getting defensive stance and enduring as well. On the martial artist tree it can also get mind over matter for 20 xp. It has more tthan enough defense available, although less so from lightsabers esp multiple attacks, but if you add cortosis armor then you are laughing as it is. The wound threshold would keep you alive in one on one crits not withstanding.

The thing is even without martial artist, you can get the same offense and have 19 base dmg with a punch. Its the ability to control the crit results that make it insane, the additinal 5 dmg from martial grace is handy also. , but base 19 dmg from 225 xp less than that quoted in my build is possible, but it lacks defense other than soak.

1 minute ago, syrath said:

Sorry marauder and gadgeteer , it also has 11 soak, along with being able to parry 4 points of damage. On the martial artist tree it is one talent from getting coordination dodge , on the gadgeteer it is close to getting improved armor master and on the marauder tree its close to getting defensive stance and enduring as well. On the martial artist tree it can also get mind over matter for 20 xp. It has more tthan enough defense available, although less so from lightsabers esp multiple attacks, but if you add cortosis armor then you are laughing as it is.

You'd still be vulnerable to a high damage pressure point attack, 6 Brawn, 5 ranks medicine, 5 ranks coordination, 3 points for mind over matter= 19 plus successes, -4 for your Parry =15 plus successes that ignores soak... means that your 15 ST build could be down for the count before the character got to throw a punch. Iron fist with a glass jaw isn't all that and a bag of chips. But the reverse is also true, so it really is a who goes first thing in a 1 vs 1 contest, so quality would be determined by alternative criteria...

How well do you manage against minion groups or multiple opponents. My build, every opponent could be facing 3 red (plus any black dice from defense), *could* potentially use improved Parry and pressure point against each opponent that attacked

19 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

19 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

You'd still be vulnerable to a high damage pressure point attack, 6 Brawn, 5 ranks medicine, 5 ranks coordination, 3 points for mind over matter= 19 plus successes, -4 for your Parry =15 plus successes that ignores soak... means that your 15 ST build could be down for the count before the character got to throw a punch. Iron fist with a glass jaw isn't all that and a bag of chips. But the reverse is also true, so it really is a who goes first thing in a 1 vs 1 contest, so quality would be determined by alternative criteria...

How well do you manage against minion groups or multiple opponents. My build, every opponent could be facing 3 red (plus any black dice from defense), *could* potentially use improved Parry and pressure point against each opponent that attacked

Except that neither pressure point nor martial grace work with improved parry as you do base dmg automatically without making a check, both of those talents require you to make a combat check, so you would do 6 dmg only and soak would apply since pressure point doesnt.

Improved parry doesnt work so good unarmed.

Edit fighting against minions is fine as you have up to 15 points in mitigation available in close range combat , you have 11 against ranged and if you want to add in coordination dodge(only another 25 xp) for a dp you can add 5 failure to the roll which will at least give you 21 points of mitigation against non breach weapons and even 11 against lightsabers. On your second combat roll you can use precisin strike to flip a dp your way each round and use the checks themselves to keep recovering strain or use a spare DP to recover 4 stain with mind over matter.

For the record I wasnt saying thst my build can best your outright I already realised in straight up combat it would be down to an initiative roll. It was just the claim thst the best 3 spec combo off as those 3, at the time I thought it was good but not the best and wanted to show one that is most likely 200 dp cheaper and just as effective , however it seems that the kingpin on your build is based on defense using improved parry but unarmed its doing brawn dmg only (at least if you intend on using pressure point when you do attack. Best damage you could get unarmed with improved parry wouod need a brawl weapon so thats going to be +4 but then pressure point is out the window for the rounds you do attack.

Combat is only one element of this game, there are far more skills that don't relate to combat so the bigger question is "what else do you want to do?"

As an example (a Whiphid) Hermit with a scary Pet, FR 3 and Enhance is a fantastic Brawling character

The lynchpin of my argument for my proposed build being the best was using pressure point with improved parry, which as you pointed out is against raw, thanks for pointing that out, I wasn't aware, therefore I retract my claim that my proposed build was the best 3 spec martial artist build.