Hello,

Recently I asked the forum for help in narrowing down my ideas for a lightsaber specialization for my Cerean Seer (3/1/3/2/4/2) (which can be found here ), and it helped... Mostly, now I'm stuck at 2, and maybe just writing it down will help me figure it out and I won't finish this post, but if I do I'm down to Niman Disciple and Sentry. The group is currently a Bounty Hunter Assassin, Engineer Mechanic and Warrior Shii-Cho Knight, with another player unsure about their current character. My thoughts on how each one helps the character are below if you care to read them.

Niman Disciple: First the group doesn't have many social characters so adding Leadership and Negotiation would give a good secondary (or tertiary) focus to the character. It has three ranks in both Reflect and Parry, which helps my character that has 13 wound threshold, but 19 strain threshold, last a lot longer in combat. Being able to use willpower for lightsaber checks would be a great help, making the character better on the attack. Going down the tree, defensive training may or may not be useful depending on what lightsaber crystal my character gets. I can't help but think that Sum Djem would be so useful combined with The Force is my Ally, it would allow for disarming an opponent then using Move (which I need to get at some point...) to get their weapon under my character's control. A cool thing to do once per session, maybe. Unless I'm misreading Draw Closer, if I don't want to do something else (or use Ebb/Flow) I could always add the characters current force rating to attacks against a single target (so probably not minion groups), but that doesn't seem, in the spirit of the talent. Center of Being could be useful if an inquisitor ever shows up, only one rank but that's a big difference between a crit of 1 and crit 2 (and so on). Force Assault looks good for those times the lightsaber misses.

Sentry: Would make Coordination, Lightsaber and Stealth new career skills. Having cheaper ranks in coordination and stealth would help in those areas since the having 1 agility tends to make stealth hard, even with help. 2 Ranks in Reflect so less than Niman, and no Parry at all in the tree, so harder to last against melee combatants. Saber Throw and Draw Closer while thematically different appear to do similar things, but Improved Saber Throw would extend the range beyond what that one Draw Closer so Sentry is better for distance fighting. How does 4 ranks in Uncanny Reactions sound? Sounds good to me, add in constant vigilance and force powers, it looks like there will always be a PC slot before any NPC's. Sleight of Mind will help with those stealth checks, which is always good. With 2 ranks in Dodge from sentry, and 1 more rank from Seer, I might not miss Parry. Dodge 3, and Fully upgraded sense would allow for 5 upgrades to certain enemy checks. Attacking a short range? Ok, that will be 3 red dice. Impossible Fall could be a dramatic power (Maul must have had this...). Fear the Shadows doesn't help much, with only 2 cunning and no other reason to invest in deception. Improved Reflect is always a good power, the only problem is its location. Sentry also has one more Grit talent than Niman.

Well, even writing it down I'm no closer to figuring it out...

I think your current stat spread lends itself much better to Niman. Having only 1 agility on a class with a slight stealth focus as well as only 2 for Fear the Shadows seems wasteful. The saber throw would also be not as strong as it could be at 3. It might be a bit min/max but if thats what you are looking for, Niman all the way.

Both are expensive trees to get to the cream talents. I would think about what you want sooner rather than the full tree. If Parry and survival is important then definitely go Niman, if keeping your distance is more important then Sentry is a much better option with that Improved Saber Throw.

Draw Closer is an interesting talent that really requires a good discussion with your GM before considering it. I personally see Minion groups as a way for PC's to show off. They're the nooks that fly out the windows of a saloon when the PC's get in a bar fight. They're the goons that end up littering an alley after mistaking the PC's for an easy target. Therefore I treat them as a single Target with a Silhouette 1 higher than their normal Silhouette for purposes of Move other Force Powers. I think it fits well within cannon too, we often see groups of battle Droids being thrown around by Jedi in TCW. But every GM will treat it differently, so ask them.

The other big benefit of Draw Closer is that you can add success, and you can even use it while engaged. So essentially you can increase the damage you deal by the amount of Force Points you have to spend.

The nice thing is you already have a decent Force Rating so you don't have to dive for the FR talent in each to get the most out of the earlier talents.

Personaly I think Sentry is more interesting but Niman has more to offer you. Your biggest problem is that the signature talents of each are very obvious uses of The Force, if that's fine in your game then Niman would be my choice with picking up Move later on when you reach Force Assault.

If you're ever planning to be in a lightsaber duel, you don't want to go in without Parry. For that reason alone I'd pick Niman, unless you're only going to be fighting against blasters, in which case Sentry would be a viable choice.

13 hours ago, SithArissa said:

I think your current stat spread lends itself much better to Niman. Having only 1 agility on a class with a slight stealth focus as well as only 2 for Fear the Shadows seems wasteful. The saber throw would also be not as strong as it could be at 3. It might be a bit min/max but if thats what you are looking for, Niman all the way.

It works the other way around as well. Having only agility 1 sucks for stealth, but gaining stealth as career skill means 20xp saved when investing into stealth 4. Though not having deception hurts really. Furthermore is the characteristic profile a lot better for Niam and the sugar on top is that Niam comes with a rank for FR, just like Sentry.

Niam looks like a sweet deal for this character.

Thanks for the help. Considering that 3 out of 4 sessions have had some form of melee or brawl combatant, I'm starting to think that parry is a must have, especially since the latest melee weapons were Vibrorapiers (Energy Buckler saved the day). As much as Sentry could help in certain areas, I think that Niman offers wider benefits.

Thanks again for the help.