If you use the Knowledge (Warfare) skill in your Force and Destiny games, do you make any adjustments to the career skills of the FaD careers or specializations? The Warrior career and specializations like the Peacekeeper and Warleader look like Knowledge (Warfare) could (should?) be a career skill, but what would it replace?

I know this is all opinion, but it seems odd to me that Well Rounded (or being a Cerean) is currently the only way to get Knowledge (Warfare) as a career skill on a FaD character without dipping into an Age of Rebellion specialization.

I make use of Knowledge (Warfare), but I don't make any adjustments to the career skills offered by the FaD careers and specs. After all, if an EotE or AoR PC wants to learn how to use a Lightsaber, they can either buy it at the non-career cost or buy a FaD spec that has it as a career skill. And unless the PC is hell-bent on getting 5 ranks in Knowledge (Warfare), the non-career cost is rather minor.

As for the Warrior career getting it, that I disagree with as just because someone is a "warrior" doesn't mean they're going to be tactical experts or be inherently with the ins and outs of military organizations or even familiar with various major conflicts from galactic history. About the only spec that I could see being allowed to have Knowledge (Warfare) as a bonus career skill is the Warleader, since tactical thinking would be part of their bag, but even that's a bit of a stretch since coming up with brilliant tactics on the battlefield doesn't necessarily mean the character's also versed in various other bits of lore that having ranks in Knowledge (Warfare) covers.

Plus, if you're going to allow FaD specs/careers to now suddenly have access to Knowledge (Warfare) due to tenuous connections to being military-types, then to be fair to the EotE specs/careers that have similar military themes to them you'd have to find ways to let careers like Hired Gun and specs such as Bodyguard and Mercenary Commander have it as a career skill as well, which is a slippery slope as you open the door for PCs to try and "justify" why their character should have Skill whatever as a bonus career skill even if it's not a standard part of their starting career/specialization's list of career skills.

Personal opinion, but I would think the notion of coming up with tactics, especially on the fly, is less important than getting your troops to follow those tactics (i.e. Leadership). Case in point, Thrawn in the S3 finale of Rebels came up with a brilliant tactical plan, but simply lacked the ability to get all of his troops (Konstantine especially but also Governor Pryce) to stay on board with his plan, which ultimately allowed the Rebels to make their escape (albeit with significant losses). Meanwhile, Sato in that same episode came up with a fairly workable plan on the fly, and was able to get his troops to follow through on it.

Im with Donavan, although the Peacekeeper is another that may be a battlefield leader, however Id give neither that nor the warleader. More likely if used you would want to go human or similar and just pick up a rank. The F&D careers and specializations wouldnt be trained in battlefield tactics any more than characters from the Edge setting (again perhaps excepting the Mercenary Soldier or the Heavy), If they wanted to get into the Military side of it then cross spec (min 30 xp) or pay the extra 5-25xp for out of career skill.

I kinda like the fact that only Age of Rebellion specializations have access to Knowledge (Warfare), just like Force and Destiny specializations are the only ones with Lightsaber as a career skill. It makes them stand out in that way, and make them more desirable, which to me is a good thing. No one specialization, IMO, should have everything you want for a character concept. And especially if we're talking about crossing product lines; I think that introducing Age of Rebellion to a Force and Destiny game should give something really meaningful to the game, and an added skill can be a good representation of that addition.

So if a Warleader wanted to be a truly brilliant tactical mind, it would make sense to pick up a specialization like Tactician. It makes sense for more than just the career skills; really, the career skill list is little more than a kicker to the rest of what a second specialization offers you. This is true across the board:

• If a Hunter wanted to fight well with Ranged (Light) weapons, he could just buy into the Gunslinger, or Sharpshooter. Not only would he be upgrading his career skill list, but he would also be getting access to talents that really compliment his core character concept while allowing him to take it in this slightly new direction.
• If a Martial Artist really wanted to up his Parrying ability, he could pick up a specialization like Shii-Cho Knight, rather than argue for more instances of the Parry talent in his core spec.
• By the same token, the Beast Rider specialization is in the Ace career. It's definitely an odd duck, but just because it's in the Ace career doesn't mean it isn't a fantastic grab for a Pathfinder or Explorer looking to really pump up their animal handling skills!
• Gotta give Humans some love. If you want to start in a certain career and specialization, but you don't have access to a career skill that really fits your character concept, play a Human! Pick up that first career skill rank for free.
• And of course there's always the "Well Rounded" talent, available in a number of specializations, that can help to flesh out a

I guess all that to say, I like encouraging my players to branch out into a second specialization; and if career skills will do that for them, it's all the better for the richness it will facilitate in their character development. There's beauty in the RAW, and how each specialization compliments others in certain ways, and I dislike the idea of tweaking it in these ways, because any time I build my own talent trees I find them rather lacking

Or maybe I prefer to maintain a sense of balance that might be completely arbitrary And especially because I'm a rather generous GM when it comes to XP anyway , I have no problem telling my players to suck it up and spend the measly 5 extra XP to get the stuff you want.

(edit: apparently, somehow my brain inserts the word "is" into sentences when I don't actually type it)

The Lightsaber and Warfare skills aren't referenced in the other core books because they're written assuming that you don't have the others. A purely Age or Edge game character doesn't NEED the Lightsaber skill because without F&D, lightsabers use Melee. Warfare is Age-centric and probably not needed in a purely F&D game, and in that context military matters would be handled by Education, Core Worlds, and/or Outer Rim depending on the application.

It's only when you start crossing them over that you see a problem come up because of the lack of cross-reference - strictly as written you end up with antique lightsabers that use Melee alongside newly-built ones that use Lightsaber. I doubt that anyone actually uses it like that, but we still have the wrinkle of an extra knowledge type that grabs some functions away from others.

There's an easy out, however: mentors can provide a discount to relevant skills, and that includes Warfare.

Just now, Garran said:

A purely Age or Edge game character doesn't NEED the Lightsaber skill because without F&D, lightsabers use Melee. Warfare is Age-centric and probably not needed in a purely F&D game, and in that context military matters would probably be handled by Education, Core Worlds, and/or Outer Rim depending on the application.

Good point! Although technically Lightsabers in Edge & Age do not use a skill, and instead have players use only their Brawn or Agility ability to determine the dice pool, with no skill ranks used to upgrade the Ability dice. The core rules of those lines also allow the GM to houserule a "Lightsaber" skill, if it is appropriate to the game.

In this vein, it would probably be fitting to just roll a plain old Intellect check if none of the other skills really fit the bill, but there are probably plenty of instances where multiple Knowledge skills could possibly fit, albeit perhaps at an increased difficulty.

Age and Edge still have the Lightsaber skill making appearances, it just isn't listed as an option for PCs. Having the skill exist isn't really a houserule in those lines, but allowing PCs access to it is a houserule. OTOH, non-Age sources don't have Knowledge (Warfare) showing up at all, even in NPC stats.

Mentor is definitely the way to do it.

edit: or a Holocron.

if I was to actually change a skill for a campaign I would choose either Brawl or Melee from the Guardian career to swap out rather than anything from a spec