http ://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Saber_Guard

H ow would you build this into a playable character?

What synergies would be good goals beyond character generation?

Armorer/Protector/Soresu Defender . They seem to fit the bodyguard mold Armorer gets the Saber Throw you need. Finally Soresu will give you the lightsaber skills, but you could easily add in Shi Cho, Shien or Ataru if you prefer, but Soresu is in the career , depends on what you want to get from it.

Shien Expert covers a huge amount of their expertise. Aalthough the Protect power is beyond that Specialisation Supreme Reflect is a decent replacement. It also has Saber Throw, Parry, and a couple of ways to really bring the fight to the enemy.

Sense is a decent mechanical replacement for the Force Resistance they have too, with a single Force Dice they could upgrade twice 2 attacks against them each round.

Armourer is a dam good option too, especially if they need to learn to maintain their own armour and Sabers.

My dualist has the sense power and the double upgrade to two opponents is amazing

1 hour ago, Random Bystander said:

My dualist has the sense power and the double upgrade to two opponents is amazing

Upgrades are pretty good , im rather fond of my 5 coercion fueled Baleful Gaze. Shame you get conflict each time you use it, anyway I digress.

Armorer for Armor Master/Improved and supreme. The ability to turn the armor cortosis is a form of force protection when you fight other lightsabers. This should give your armor 3/2 since that is obviously some form of batfle armor which starts at soak 2 /def 1. Also has the talent that lets you add your brawn score to your Lightsaber strike

Protector gives you the body guard talents and force protection lets you add 2 to your soak meaning if you get Strength to 6 , your soak is 9 which can increase to 11

Dumping soresu in lets you get 5 ranks of parry (combined with the one each in protector) and reflect each letting you up your mitigation to a rather impressive 17 , that can even work against lightsabers, With armorer even if some damage gets through and causes a critical you can reduce the roll by 110. Survivability is your middle name. Whats even better is that you can also parry or reflect 7 damage caused on an engaged ally, or upgrade their attack against them twice or even every now and then take the hit instead of them.

If this isnt enough protection, pile the protect power on top for another lot of mitigation meaning you can soak the damage from a thermal detonator and keep walking.

Ebb/Flow would also be a good one since it can heal strain as well as give failures and threats to opponents on your lightsaber check.

As a starting spec I recommend shien, or you might want to try sentinel:sentry frome endless vigil, it gets you improved Saber throw, 2 reflect, improved reflect, constant vigilance, I think some stealth, a dedication, and a force upgrade, but no parry.

The only way to get a "movie quality" quality Jedi in 2 specs is the combination of niman-disciple and sentry (in either order)

So what would it look like at char gen?

19 minutes ago, Mychal'el said:

So what would it look like at char gen?

Who are you responding too, how much xp (base/knight level)? Are you asking about starting as a sentry? Whitt species (human?), etc. Rlouge177 has a spec sheet thread, I am pretty sure his most current version would have sentry in it but I haven'tconfirmed that.

Maybe Warrior/Aggressor > Ataru Striker. The "Force barrier" effect can be done with Suppress, which is found in Keeping the Peace.

6 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

Who are you responding too, how much xp (base/knight level)? Are you asking about starting as a sentry? Whitt species (human?), etc. Rlouge177 has a spec sheet thread, I am pretty sure his most current version would have sentry in it but I haven'tconfirmed that.

Sorry, I'm new,

I was just asking everyone their personal opinion.

How would you all create a Saber Guard character?

If starting off with a Lightsaber career would you pick Shii-Cho, Shien, Ataru or Soresu ? Why?

If not starting with a Lightsaber career, why?

If you have a different answer for knight level than base level, then include both.

I hope that is more clear

4 hours ago, Mychal'el said:

Sorry, I'm new,

I was just asking everyone their personal opinion.

How would you all create a Saber Guard character?

If starting off with a Lightsaber career would you pick Shii-Cho, Shien, Ataru or Soresu ? Why?

If not starting with a Lightsaber career, why?

If you have a different answer for knight level than base level, then include both.

I hope that is more clear

Both Armorer and Protector are lightsaber specs. Armorer has the skill along with saber throw, as well as the talent to allow to boost saber damage with brawn. Protector has reflect and parry, With Soresu though buying these 2 will be cheaper, so you only spend 50 xp on buying your other specs (eventually). I think Armorer is how I'd start.

Sentry is the only spec with improved saber throw

2 hours ago, syrath said:

Both Armorer and Protector are lightsaber specs. Armorer has the skill along with saber throw, as well as the talent to allow to boost saber damage with brawn. Protector has reflect and parry, With Soresu though buying these 2 will be cheaper, so you only spend 50 xp on buying your other specs (eventually). I think Armorer is how I'd start.

11 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

Sentry is the only spec with improved saber throw

Still questions for anyone:

What if the player doesn't really want saber throw? Just the dual wielding sabers and armor?

Also, does saber throw apply to ancient swords?

Saber Throw only applies "when the character is wielding a Lightsaber weapon". This is different to "weapons which use the Lightsaber Skill." Ancient Swords are considered a "Melee" weapon that uses the Lightsaber Skill and therefore can not be used with Saber Throw.

6 hours ago, Mychal'el said:

Still questions for anyone:

What if the player doesn't really want saber throw? Just the dual wielding sabers and armor?

Also, does saber throw apply to ancient swords?

there is no current specialization that helps you dual wield sabers (there's the gunslinger for pistols). if you want to focus on armor, then try armorer,

1 hour ago, EliasWindrider said:

there is no current specialization that helps you dual wield sabers (there's the gunslinger for pistols). if you want to focus on armor, then try armorer,

There aren't any force & destiny specializations that give any practical help for dual-wielding over others? Maybe something to do with agility perhaps?

8 minutes ago, Mychal'el said:

There aren't any force & destiny specializations that give any practical help for dual-wielding over others? Maybe something to do with agility perhaps?

No, unfortunately not. However, that doesn't mean you can't "Dual Wield" sabers. You are just subject to the full rules of two weapon combat on page 217 of the F&D Core.

54 minutes ago, TrystramK said:

No, unfortunately not. However, that doesn't mean you can't "Dual Wield" sabers. You are just subject to the full rules of two weapon combat on page 217 of the F&D Core.

So any advice on making dual-wielding sabers or blades easier?

1 hour ago, Mychal'el said:

So any advice on making dual-wielding sabers or blades easier?

just use 2 weapons which require the same skill, e.g. 2 lightsabers OR 2 melee for a 3 purple difficulty, don't try to mix 1 lightsaber with 1 melee (it adds an extra difficulty die, i.e. a total of 4 purple dice, before upgrades)

but if you want to get around that, you can slightly tweak your concept to use 1 double bladed lightsaber instead of 2 single and then... I think... you'd be facing a 2 purple difficulty and only need 2 advantage to activate linked 1 for the second hit.

15 minutes ago, EliasWindrider said:

but if you want to get around that, you can slightly tweak your concept to use 1 double bladed lightsaber instead of 2 single and then... I think... you'd be facing a 2 purple difficulty and only need 2 advantage to activate linked 1 for the second hit.

Does using a shoto saber help at all? Are there any mods that allow you to reduce the disadvantages?

a shoto is better at defense IIRC, but there is NO method in the game to make dual-wielding lightsabers easier

edit: actually there is the paired weapon mod, which gives 1 "advantage" towards activating the second hit, but you are still facing the 3 purple difficulty

if I really wanted to dual wield I would

A) ask my GM if I could have a double bladed lightsaber that I could refluff as being 2 single bladed lightsabers (uses all the rules of a double bladed lightsaber but in game is "described" as being 2 lightsabers)

B) take aturu striker: hold a second saber that is tricked out for defense in my off hand (to get a mechanical advantage from it), and whenever I activated the saber swarm talent narrate it as being a hit from the off hand saber

4 hours ago, EliasWindrider said:

if I really wanted to dual wield I would...

...take aturu striker: hold a second saber that is tricked out for defense in my off hand (to get a mechanical advantage from it), and whenever I activated the saber swarm talent narrate it as being a hit from the off hand saber

So how does this sound:

Guardian/Amorer > Ataru Striker

- Shoto saber as primary for greater accuracy

- Regular saber as secondary with a defense mod

or two Shotos with a paired weapon mod?

From a simple maths approach Saber Swarm is mechanically better than any current way of dual wielding. I would hold 2 Sabers but only ever attack with 1 and use Saber Swarm. That way when you throw one and can't bring it back you're not unarmed, also helps if your opponent disarms you.

But that's not really all that COOL, nor is it story driven. I would just use 2 Sabers, ensuring my best characteristic is being used. An Accurate Superior primary weapon paired to a Defensive or Crit focused off hand weapon is ideal. Then it's just a matter of getting as many positive dice in the pool to overcome the additional difficulty.