Hello there. I was invited to join an ongoing force and destiny campaign a friend of mine is running. Initially I was planning to play a Kyuzo Scoundrel turned into Makashi Duelist using it's Dense Musculature ability and initiative bonuses to engage and dispatch a key target at the start of the combat and then sidestep out of the retributive firepower of his target's allies. Then it turned out that the Dense Musculature can't be used to engage a target and a lost the bet on that matter with the Game Master, so as a consequence of loosing the bet - I have to make a force user that will never place any points into his lightsaber skill. I have 75 000 credits gear of any rarity to work with and 500 XP points.
Since this is my second star wars game and the first one never got past 100 earned XP (and it had no PC force users) I want to double check if the character I am planning doesn't have any glaring weaknesses that I won't be able to fix with the XP and credits from the first 2-3 sessions. The GM has good grasp of the rules and is pretty competitive in nature, so we can expect an opposition suitable for out XP bracket. Characters with obvious weaknesses don't tend to live very long if they often end up in combat.

I have set my mind on a Zabrak dark force user - a former jedi mangled beyond recognition during order 66, focused around force lightning and fighting the empire out of pure hatred alone.

Specializations:

Sage: Grit x3, Force Rating x 2, Kill with Kindness, Researcher, Smooth Talker, Preemptive Avoidance, Knowledge Specialization (Underworld)

Shien Expert: Reflect x3, Reflext Improved, Reflect (Supreme), Street Smarts, Shien Technique

Aggressor: Plausable Deniability, Intimidating, Fearsome

Force Powers:

Protect/Unleash: Strength x2, Magnitude, Control: Defense/Strain, Control All Attacks/Ensnare, Duration, Mastery

Gear:

Guard Shoto: Lorian Gemstone (Defensive +1 Mod, 2 x Deflection +1 Mod), Magnetic Weapon Tether (Quick Draw Mod)

Jedi Temple Guard Armor: Optical Camouflage System (Master of Shadows Mod, Stealth Skill Mod), Reflect Shadowskin (Stalker Mod, 2 x Add to perception checks to see wearer mod)

Cybernetic Legs (Mod III), Cybernetic Arms (Mod IV) (Unfortunately I don't see a way to get them Ion Shielded in the backstory since there is no price for that)

Demon Mask talisman

Skills:

Charm [G][G][G] -(B), Coercion [Y][G][G][G][Adv.] -(B), Cool [Y][Y][G], Coordination [G][G][G][G][C], Core Worlds [G][G] -(B), Deception [G][G] -(B), Discipline [Y][Y][Y][G], Education [G][G] -(B), Leadership [G][G][G] -(B), Lore [Y][G] -(B), Negotiation [Y][Y][Y], Outer Rim [G][G] -(B), Stealth [Y][Y][Y][G][C][Adv.], Streetwise [G][G] -(B), Survival [Y][G], Underworld [Y][G] -(B) -(B), Vigilance [G][G][G][G], Xenology [G][G] -(B), Warfare [G][G] -(B).

Characteristics:
Brawn 2, Agility 4, Intellect 2, Cunning 2, Willpower 4, Presence 3

My main (and only) mode of offence will be force lightning at 4 base damage and crit 1 and if I roll well on the firce die or spend a destiny point for it (with my 4 force rating I should be getting almost 3 dark and 3 light pips per roll) either upgrading it to a base damage 6, crit 1 and making it affect a second target or adding burn 2, ensnare 2 to the effects of the power. The range is short, but my stealth should help with that for the first round if we are on the offence.

My range defense while wielding the Shoto should be 6 and I can reflect for 5 damage at the cost of 1 strain so I should be ok on that front.
My melee defense will be 3, but each time someone engages me he should make a [P] check against fear and when push comes to shove I should be able to use preemptive avoidance if there are any destiny points available to leave engagement as incidental.
Getting hit with an Ion will suck, but hopefully the sentinel in our group will be able to craft me some ion shielded cybernetics along the way.

With my next 150 xp I intend to get a point each in resilience, vigilance, education as well as ranged (light) and finish the aggressor carrier up to the bonus force rating and attribute point (willpower), getting 2 more ranks of fearsome along the way for a quite respectable [P][P][P] fear check for anyone engaging with me for a first time in the encounter and a reliable 3 dark pips per force roll. After that I can go into the Magnitude/Range branches of the unleash tree or get a second force power, but the campaign should probably be nearing its end by then so whatever.

Is there something that I am missing? My first impression of force and destiny was that the force powers are not meant to be used as a default solution to a problem, but hopefully starting with 500XP will allow me to change that.

Just so you know, Supreme Reflect only works on turns you don't make a combat check. Unleash is a ranged attack, therefore a combat check.

Are Heal/Harm or Bind combat checks? If Heal/Harm isn't a combat check, that could be amazing in combination with Supreme Reflect/Supreme Parry.

Why not go the martial arts route with FR3 your brawl gets a massive boost of 3 additional white dice with enhance. Couple that with the martial artist spec and Martial Grace and some coordination, you could do some good damage. Then take the Iron Fist talisman your soak now works against lightsaber combat, unarmed parry also works., your fist attacks gain pierce 3. Warden/Aggrsor /Martial Artist should do te trick

You could always go for 2 specs get FR3 and get up to just before mastery in protect and use protect to cause dmg to every incoming attack, should be able to avoid pretty much most dmg I'd recommend armorer as the base spec

So if you're not going to be able to any lightsaber skills then use blasters or go full force powers with sage/hermit. You can be very effective and utilitarian with the right force powers and upgrades.

Also Force sensitive doesn't mean that you can't dip into non FS classes.

You might consider Artisan / Hermit / Cyberdoc (or droidtech) with cyborg (or droid) beasts with FR4 and a nasty bunch of killers at your side.

You can heal them with your Manipulation force power.

I would even guess the new force powers in the upcoming Disciples of Harmony would also be good for this spec combination.

Really now...75,000 credits with no restrictions on rarity? I mean obviously you have to obtain a Bardottan sphere then!! Only 50,000! You already want to be a dark force user!? Then you can wander around sacrificing force users to gain unlimited power, eventually having a 10+ force rating!! hahahahahaha!!!!